The Daily Mile - Scaling a Grassroots Movement Nationally

Challenge: Founded by head teacher Elaine Wyllie, charity The Daily Mile has a simple idea at its heart - get children running or walking for 15 minutes a day and it will transform their physical and mental wellbeing. They were already having quiet, grassroots success but awareness beyond education circles was limited.

With backing from INEOS, the challenge was to take a grassroots initiative and make it nationally visible, desirable and easy to adopt - without feeling worthy or preachy.

Solution: I created a national TV campaign, writing and directing a simple and authentic film featuring founder Elaine and a classroom of energetic children. The idea was to make it as relatable as possible and drive traffic to the website for more information.

This approach unlocked significant national exposure beyond our expectations. Major UK broadcast network ITV came on board as a sponsor, and we launched the campaign during their biggest Saturday Night show - Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway - reaching 7 Million Viewers in a single broadcast - and many more in the weeks and months that followed.

Within minutes the website was flooded with enquiries. The Daily Mile has gone on to be a major force across the world.

Impact

• 20,000% increase in website views

• A major uplift in school registrations and participation - in the 12 months following the campaign ITV reported that well over one million additional children were benefitting from The Daily Mile

Following the success of this campaign, I went on to make several others, including the multi-award-winning "Fit for Life" ad - watch it here.

Role: Strategic lead, writer and director
Agency: Media Zoo