Summary 

Our films shine a light on the invisible world of caregiving - showing the simultaneous emotional light and shade of different caregiving situations, and the breadth of people it can impact.

With the help of three real carer households we painted a true picture of what it’s like, to recognise the many guises of caregiving and the cocktail of emotions that comes with it.

The film prompts society to support carers, and recognises a carer audience who often don’t identify as such – acknowledging the incredible work they do.

We adopted a bespoke, nimble production approach to capture real moments from each carer household, and to work around their caregiving routines. We found a director with caregiving experience to aid discussions around the sensitive, emotional side of the responsibility. Longform interviews were carried out during our shoot days, sections of which were used across the campaign.

Background: 

TENA, the world’s leading incontinence brand, have been supporting family carers for over 60 years.

Our brief was to speak to current and future carers across the globe, to support them in their duties and make TENA a trusted, go-to brand for them - further cementing the brand as an ally to carers (and future carers) worldwide.

Predictions show that as many as one in ten people in the UK already provide unpaid care, and with ageing global populations this will rise dramatically. But research carried out by TENA showed us that half of UK society feel unprepared, with 47% worried that they’ll need to take care of a family member in the future… And 44% don’t believe there is any support available for family caregivers.

Our objective was to make the world recognise the many faces of caregiving and the emotional uniqueness of the challenge, to better prepare society.

Impact

-        8.2m+ people reached so far

-      UK campaign made national TV, prompting conversations about caregiving & the emotions involved. + A full page spread sharing our carers’ story in the national press.

-        Approx. 15% increase in membership of TENA’s care for others support group on Facebook.

-        Click thru rate in digital was 3x the norm in Poland. View thru rates also higher than the norm.

-        We’re now partnering with Carers UK to help support their mission, in parallel to when the Carers Leave Bill is being passed through Parliament

Three of our favourite reactions so far:
“It’s so good to feel acknowledged” (Caregiver, Mexico)

“This only makes me think well of TENA, I can relate, it resonates, it’s something I experience on a daily basis and TENA is here to support me in my daily task. (Caregiver, France)

“It’s reality and you can really understand how the care-givers feel” (Caregiver, France)

Cultural context

From research we learned that attitudes towards caregiving can vary dramatically per market. In Canada, for example, unpaid care was viewed as an additional burden on individuals, who consequently need additional state support - whereas in Poland caring for a loved one was considered more a part of one’s societal responsibility, given the feeling they had been somewhat “abandoned by the state”. The economic situation for caregivers can also vary hugely by market and within markets too.

Given these research learnings (and our need for a globally-relevant campaign), we needed to find a universal way to speak to all caregivers worldwide – from varying market/situational contexts.

Our solution was to focus on the universality of human emotions – so even if situationally our featured carers’ worlds didn’t speak to a someone’s reality, the emotional relevance (the cocktail of feelings one can feel as a carer) would still resonate loud and clear.