A film that said we can.

Working directly with Parkinson’s UK, Blonde developed the concept, wrote the script and directed Time For Can – the charity’s first TV ad in fourteen years, built entirely from archive during the pandemic.

The brief

Parkinson’s UK briefed Blonde as their creative partner in August 2020. They wanted an idea that could flex across TV, social, newsletters and direct mail, built around a 30-second ad. The objective was to grow understanding of Parkinson’s as the fastest-growing neurological condition in the world, and to drive donations in a year when most charities were seeing them fall.

The audience was deliberately younger than the charity’s existing supporter base – diverse, social-media literate, likely to share. The creative had to reach them without losing the existing community.

Three and a half months to concept-to-launch. Shoestring budget. No new filming. Covid restrictions, and the vulnerability of people living with Parkinson’s, meant that any new shoot was off the table.

The craft challenge

Make a 30-second TV ad from footage that already existed.

Everything had to come from Parkinson’s UK’s own archive and from the community itself – user-generated content supplied by people living with the condition. There was no option to shoot anew. The whole film had to be found in material that was never designed to be an ad.

Concept to script

Three concepts went to the charity in the August chemistry session. The one that landed was Symptomatic – the can’t-to-can idea. The film would open on everything Parkinson’s prevents people from doing, then flip at the halfway mark to what the community and the research can do together.

The script went through more than thirteen versions, developed in parallel with the edit as new archive and new community footage came in. The charity’s content team sat in on every round. The community sat in on key stages – ensuring the final film had integrity, that it was true to lived experience, that it did not reduce Parkinson’s to a montage of symptoms.

The edit

Hundreds of hours of footage, condensed into 30 seconds.

The first half of the film is the can’t. Quick punch-ins, glitches, text-on-screen, a desaturated grade with the warm colours muted. Music and sound effects deliberately unsettling. The viewer is placed inside the panic and anxiety of the condition itself.

Then, halfway through, the staggering fact: Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological condition in the world. The film pivots. The grade warms and brightens. The score becomes ethereal. The second half shows the community’s determination and the researchers’ work towards a cure.

Can.

Voice, sound and grade

Angela Christofilou was cast for the voice-over, booked through deVine Voices and cleared for TV, online paid and organic use.

The sound mix moves with the film, from unsettling to ethereal. The grade shifts across the thirty seconds, desaturated-and-muted into warm-and-bright, with a reverse vignette on the second half to lift the community shots.

Delivery and clearance

We submitted the voice artist, music details and six Artlist tracks through Clearcast. We delivered the broadcast master to the TV station and cut the social assets for every placement the campaign needed. We also drafted the press release.

The result

Time For Can raised £503,000 in 2020 and £602,000 in 2021 – up 20% in a year when most charities saw donations fall.

In the first year, online donations hit their highest weekly volume in week four. Week six brought in £48,400 online – the most the charity had received in a single week since it began using the platform in 2017. The direct mail target of £101,000 was hit in week three with nine weeks still to run, and stood at 155% of target by week seven.

In week one, 74% of people who landed on the donate page went on to donate, against 46% on the previous year’s Christmas appeal. New supporters were up 151% on the 2019 campaign. Understanding of Parkinson’s in the target audience rose from 58% to 61%.

The film was watched to the end over 1.2 million times on paid social in seven weeks. It was shared over 550 times, against a usual 30 to 40. 70% of people who saw it organically were not followers. The 15-second cut became the charity’s highest-ranking video on YouTube. The donate page became the third most visited page on the site.

In Channel 4’s survey of 710 viewers, 90% rated the film at least three stars out of five and 64% rated it four or five, against a norm of 43%. Among the charity’s most engaged supporters it reached 75%. It beat the norm in every category.

And finally

Thanks to Hannah Dedman, Philippa Bell, Dee Russell, Zohra Vermani and Chantal Payne at Parkinson’s UK for trusting us with the brief and giving us the room to make it work. And to the Parkinson’s community, whose own footage and own voices became the film.

Credits

Client: Parkinson’s UK
Creative, production and direction: Blonde
Media agency and strategy: The Barber Shop, with Dino Myers-Lamptey as strategy director
Media planning partner: The Rapids
Voice-over: Angela Christofilou (via deVine Voices)
Footage: Parkinson’s UK archive and Parkinson’s community
Music: Artlist