Pioneering Change in the BVOD Industry for good

Client: NHS England

Timely visits to the GP are crucial when people have signs and symptoms of cancer, but there are a number of barriers holding people back. The NHS Reducing Cancer Barriers campaign was developed to address the barriers and encourage earlier diagnosis. The primary audience of the campaign is adults aged 50+ from C2DE groups, who are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer. The NHS are always looking for additional opportunities to ensure crucial, lifesaving messages reach the everyone in the audience and address health inequalities.

Through collaboration with NHS England, their accessibility consultancy BDS Communications and ITV we identified an opportunity to use the BSL version of the campaign advert on the then recently launched ITVX BSL channel. This pioneered a media-first buying route with ITV, in getting BSL adverts played out in on-demand programming, enabling BSL users to access content tailored to their needs. This marks a significant step forward in making advertising more inclusive and accessible and has now been rolled out on other NHS campaigns. This collaboration with ITV has led to the development of a targeted solution for communicating with BSL users in a way that truly meets their needs, opening up new accessibility opportunities for the advertising industry as a whole.