The Challenge

Tommy's is the UK’s leading pregnancy and baby charity. It exists to stop the heartbreak and devastation of baby loss and make pregnancy and birth safe – for everyone.

Each year in the UK there are over 200,000 miscarriages, 1,900 neonatal deaths, 2,866 stillborn babies, 53,000 babies born prematurely.

This problem is largely hidden and people assume that pregnancy is, by and large, safe. That any negative outcomes are just very unlucky, an inevitable part of life and “just one of those things”.

The Big Ambition

Make Tommy’s seen and heard, whilst making bereaved parents feel seen and understood

To date Tommy’s has achieved significant success across the whole pregnancy journey, turning research breakthroughs into new tests and treatments, campaigning for changes to national maternity care and providing expert information and support for everyone.

However, among their target audience they are largely unknown. In their 2023 brand tracking they found that only 4% of their target audience knew the name ‘Tommy’s’.

We needed to create a brand campaign to signal the personal, social and cultural importance of what Tommy’s is and does. But importantly, we needed to do it in a way that would compel people to talk about the subject. For one of the hardest topics of conversation, we had to find a way to shine a light on it that would open people up, not make them more fearful or dejected. It was a significant challenge, strategically and creatively but also emotionally as many of the team had been personally affected.

The Audience Truths

The insights behind Projecting Life were deeply rooted in the hidden nature of pregnancy and baby loss, as well as the widespread misconception that such tragedies are ‘just one of those things’ rather than preventable issues.

Conversations with bereaved families revealed that the loss of a baby is not a singular moment but a lifelong absence that shapes everyday experiences.

We needed to shine a light on the magnitude of each loss in a way that also exposed the injustice of it. This isn’t a lost cause. Hope is very real and so we wanted to capture in the execution a sense of looking upwards to the future and what is possible with more support.

The Results

This is Tommy’s first brand campaign and our goal was to raise awareness of the charity and the great work that they’re doing. The film had an overwhelming positive response online and promoted conversation about the film and the charity. We reached parents who had experience of Tommy’s but, critically, we touched people who hadn’t.

Baby loss is one of the hardest subjects to talk about (which is part of the problem) and so the fact that people felt compelled to speak about how the film had affected them is evidence of its strength.