Smoking Matters: out of the paragraph
One of the short films made with the Smoking Matters team.
Client
Smoking Matters, NHS Dumfries and Galloway
What we did
Brand voice, short films and interviews
The big change
A service explained in paragraphs, now shown by the people it worked for.
Smoking Matters is the local stop smoking service in Dumfries and Galloway. The team is good at what it does, and the people who come through it do stop. The trouble was getting people to come through the door in the first place.
The service was explained in paragraphs. Nobody who smokes wants to read a paragraph about it.
On a clinic poster or a staff message board, heavy text asks for effort before it gives anything back. For something people already feel anxious or a bit guilty about, a block of clinical copy isn't an invitation. It's a reason to keep scrolling.
Let the people who stopped do the talking.
A leaflet can inform. A person can reassure. Working alongside NHS staff, we put the service's work on screen — short films and honest interviews where people who actually stopped smoking became the welcoming face of it. The question in the viewer's head moves from "can this be done?" to "who do I call first?"
A human voice for the service
We moved the service away from clinical explanation and towards people talking to people. Same facts, told by someone the viewer could picture sitting next to.
Short films for social feeds
Films that make their point before a thumb moves, instead of asking for two minutes up front. One reason per film, so each works on its own.
Honest interviews
Longer conversations with people who stopped. Proof that someone ordinary did it does a job a statistic never manages.
One tone everywhere
The same voice on a staff message board as on a public feed, so it reads as one service wherever someone meets it.
A library to keep using
Footage and cut-downs the team can keep posting, trimming and reusing without commissioning again.
One point per film.
Each film makes its point in the first few seconds, so it can be posted on its own and still land.
Shown, not explained.
- A service that used to be explained in paragraphs, now shown by the people it worked for
- Short films that make their point before a thumb moves
- Two honest interviews doing the job a statistic never manages
- The same tone on a staff message board as on a public feed
- A library the team can keep posting, cutting down and reusing
Your service explained in paragraphs too?
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