As Steve Jobs said, ‘the only way to do great work is to love what you do’ – and we couldn’t agree more.
We take huge pride in delivering great work for clients around the world for over three decades now, winning plenty of awards along the way.
We love making films of all kinds, whether it’s brand films that help bring your vision to the world or in-depth documentaries that unpack important subjects in close detail, opening eyes and changing minds in the process.
It’s an opportunity that we never take for granted, and we’re always trying to give back where we can – because we believe we have a huge amount of expertise and experience to offer through our films.
From Environmental Activism and Disability Awareness to Black Lives Matter and Global Gender Equality, we’re committed to supporting causes that we believe help to make the world a better place for everyone. It’s why we love working with charities and NGOs across the globe as much as we can – and we’ve worked with quite a few over the years…
We believe we walk the walk in how we do things within The Edge, but we also believe there’s few better places to start than by helping those organisations already on the frontline leading the way.
It’s why we teamed up with the one of the UK’s most important campaigns to help raise awareness of one of modern life’s biggest challenges: Loneliness.
The fight against Loneliness
Loneliness is an awful state of existence. It can negatively affect so much of how a person sees themselves and how they perceive their place within – or without, as the case often is – a community or within wider society.
The Campaign to End Loneliness recognises that over 9m people within the UK are struggling with loneliness, and at least 4m are from older generations – and that’s just the known figure. It’s possible that there are more who haven’t come forward to seek help for a host of reasons.
One might say it’s one of the bitter ironies of modern life.
We’re living in a time where we have the most advanced technology in history: smartphones, computers, the internet, and so much more.
We have the means to connect with others around the world in an instant…
…and yet more people feel lonely than ever before in this incredible human story that we all share and all play our part in.
It shouldn’t be like this.
At the same time, we have more knowledge and understanding about important issues such as mental illnesses and mental wellbeing, and the impact of social dynamics on our individual and shared happiness.
The challenge may be greater than ever – but we’re also better placed than ever to make real, positive differences to so many people’s lives.
And it’s where we felt we could help the Campaign in the most effective way we could:
Through our films.
Small Moments: Let’s Talk More
Our first collaboration with the Campaign to End Loneliness came about thanks to our longstanding partnership with healthcare PR company, HAVAS Just::.
They work with companies to initiate powerful conversations that improve health and change lives, and their support for the Campaign is just one of the latest in the company’s long tradition of charitable support initiatives.
Long before Covid-19 upended our lives, Loneliness became a major issue across the UK. Our society – indeed, the world – has been undergoing all kinds of changes thanks to technology and everchanging social dynamics.
It’s worth acknowledging that rapid technological progress has had many positive effects on our daily lives, and we’re sure you can think of many. Unfortunately, for every action there’s a reaction, and along with these positives come the negative effects, and we’re still learning the extent of their impact – and will be for many years to come.
What we do know is that so many of us now live our lives immersed in all kinds of technology, whether it’s our mobile phone, computer, tablet, or TV.
24-hour news outlets and social media platforms make their living by keeping us engaged in the products they sell.
We find ourselves so immersed in the attention economy that it can be hard to break out of the cycle.
It means the simple things we could be doing to tackle loneliness, such as smiling at someone or simply saying ‘hello’ to a passer-by, are not happening – and the sad reality is that 9m people in the UK now struggle with loneliness.
They lack the friendship and support we all need, and 4m of these are older people who find constant loneliness in the modern world harder to overcome.
The Campaign to End Loneliness is determined to change this for the better. They wanted a film that would be part a cultural shift to celebrate these small moments of connection that we can all have every day – and emphasise the impact they can have on eliminating Loneliness.
The thing is… most of us know this at an innate level.
According to polls taken by the Campaign to End Loneliness, 9 in 10 adults in the UK believe that small interactions with people every day helps to tackle loneliness. We understand how these little moments of connection can really make someone’s day that bit better, especially for older people who are more inclined to start conversation – and especially when humour is involved!
This became central to our creative thinking, and we developed a concept that embraces gentle comedy to disrupt, disarm, and bring people together.
We enlisted popular comedian, Andy Parsons, to break down the awkward barriers of Britishness through shared laughter and storytelling. We see him breaking the ice with people around him, immediately provoking conversations amongst strangers and bringing them together. Through authentic, genuine conversations between people from all walks of life, we see how much of a positive impact these small moments can have.
Making an Impact
To give it the best chance of influencing as many people as possible, we decided to put the film through a seeding campaign. It allowed the campaign to secure 7 pieces of coverage reaching over 180k monthly unique visitors, including prime-time television slot on ITN News.
Multiple press releases, along with the film itself, were distributed across traditional media, digital media, and social media channels. It was extremely well received with the film generating over 3.5 million views and 81 million social media impressions across all channels.
It’s the kind of impact we believe can make a real difference in supporting the Campaign to End Loneliness.
Our hope is that the film will continue to resonate with everyone who sees it, encouraging them to look around and connect with others in even the smallest way, because…