McCann and Prince Charles' Business Network Campaign to Protect Small Businesses

In its biggest campaign to date, Business in the Community (BITC), The Prince’s Responsible Business Network, founded by Prince Charles, is on a mission to protect small businesses by ensuring they are prepared for crisis.

“Would you be ready?” is a new creative campaign by McCann Enterprise launching on Tuesday 24 April to put resilience on the agenda for all UK-based small businesses.

McCann Enterprise has created a series of striking stills and animations bearing provocative statements around the biggest issues that affect small businesses: cyber-attacks, fires and floods.

The typographic approach, with the statements submerged in water, burning, broken like glass and hacked, aims to confront the complacency felt by some small businesses and appeal to their owners’ sense of pride in the businesses they have built.

Launching to coincide with Responsible Business Week, the campaign will run across a variety of online and offline media, including a dedicated website, social media and paid social, as well as in-branch, events and leaflets. Activity will raise awareness for a new online test that small business owners can take to test their preparedness and receive advice on tackling different crisis scenarios.

The campaign is also backed by BITC’s Business Emergency Resilience Group (BERG), which is made up of a collaboration of private and public businesses and figures, including McCann Worldgroup.

Joey Tabone, Director, BERG, said: “Small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy, and the impact that an issue or crisis could have on small business is significant, with potentially life-changing consequences for owners and employers, as well as having a negative effect on the economy.

“We are urging small business owners across the UK to take the test and use BITC’s free advice to scrutinise their own business practices to ensure they’re protected against future incidents that could put their business, and their livelihoods, in jeopardy.”

Stephen Meade, CEO, McCann Enterprise, said: “We are really excited about this campaign, which we hope will reach and help to protect all small businesses across the UK. As the country’s lifeblood, the owners of these businesses are often, quite rightly, fiercely proud of what they have built, but can lack the resources or foresight to properly safeguard them. The campaign and test not only indicate potential crises but provide actionable advice on how to face and prevent them.”