The opportunity
1 in 5 people who have gambled in the last year are facing problems related to their gambling.
Yet, insights can often forget the human behind the stat. As part of their brand refresh, GambleAware needed move beyond statistics to humanise the issue of gambling harms, and demonstrate how it impacts more people than you think.
The heart of authentic storytelling lies within the lived experiences of those who are most impacted. Challenging the idea of a “gambler", we needed to remind viewers that behind every story of gambling harms is a person with a life far more complex than the stigma.
Our solution
We led the creative direction and production for a hero film, centred on five individuals who had lived through gambling harm. This wasn't just content creation; it was a process built on courage, trust, and safety. Collaborating with Digital Agency Flipside Health and video production company, Rob Pinney Studio, our method focused on:
Vulnerability at the core: Over two days of filming and seven hours of open interviewing, we facilitated the storytelling of each person with lived experience, prioritising personal, individual experience.
Empathetic leadership: Our founder conducted all interviews personally, ensuring each participant felt safe, respected, and in total control of their own narrative.
Production: We partnered with Rob Pinney to produce and shape the final film, ensuring emotional poignancy of each story was delivered.
The results
The film became the emotional anchor of the brand refresh, drastically outperforming previous engagement benchmarks and fundamentally changing how users navigated the site. We achieved:
Record-breaking engagement: The film achieved 2.4k views - the highest on the platform and 4x higher than the site average.
Improved user journey: Beyond just views, the film successfully decentralised traffic. By making visitors feel understood, it encouraged them to explore beyond the homepage.
Increased Resource Discovery: We saw a significant increase in traffic spread across the website. While total traffic grew, the most notable impact was on secondary advice and tool pages, which saw traffic increases ranging from 5% to a staggering 1,000%.
