Marie Curie Aims to Deliver The Goodbye We All Deserve

Marie Curie, the UK's leading end of life charity, has launched its first-ever integrated creative platform to reach more people with expert end of life care, information and support. 

The topic is an urgent, and important one. Almost one in three people miss out on the end of life care they need and, as the population ages, that number is only rising without more support available. Marie Curie is on a mission to close this gap and create a world where more people can have access to the right care, and can have a better goodbye - the goodbye we all deserve.

To do this, the charity is bringing more of its care into local communities and people’s homes.

Reaching more people also depends on increasing understanding of what Marie Curie does and how to access its support. The new integrated platform is designed to do this, bringing all of the charity’s work together under one creative approach for the first time, from brand, fundraising and policy campaigning to information and support.

The first campaign on the platform, The Goodbye We All Deserve, has been developed by the charity’s creative agency VCCP Blue and will appear across TV, radio, podcast host-reads, PR, YouTube and social media. 

Using powerful human-led storytelling, the campaign aims to replace the medicalised, impersonal view of end of life that many have today, with a more hopeful one - showing a world in which better goodbyes are possible. 

The campaign shows what a better goodbye can look like: one where pain is managed, anxiety is looked after and families are supported, where personal wishes are considered, and where people are treated like the people they have always been, right to the very end.

Three films have been created for the campaign to show what good end of life care can look like when people get the right support at the right time. They follow Greg as he revisits memories from his final year, reliving moments with the people he loved most and finding the chance to say his final goodbyes. As each film closes, Greg thanks Marie Curie for supporting him and his family, and helping him feel like himself, right to the end.  The films were directed by Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor and produced by Academy Films, in collaboration with Girl&Bear, VCCP’s global content creation studio.

The 90” and 30” film will be shown on linear and connected TV, and the 90” and 60” films are available to watch on YouTube. Both feature the song 'Breath', by Stein Austrud. The paid social adverts for The Goodbye We All Deserve feature real people, sharing voice notes about how Marie Curie helped their loved ones at the end of their lives.

Jo Bray, Marketing Director at Marie Curie, said: "Everyone deserves good care at the end of life, but around 200,000 dying people in the UK don’t get it each year. Without doing things differently, that number will only grow.

“We’re determined to change that. Over the next five years, we aim to double the number of people we care for. By bringing more of our care into local communities and people’s homes, we can help more people plan ahead for the kind of goodbye they want. It will also help avoid unnecessary hospital stays, which are distressing for everyone and costly for the NHS.

"Our new creative approach is moving and thought-provoking. It will help us bring greater consistency and coherence to the way we tell our story, so more people know we’re here, why our work matters, how to reach and support us." 

Roly Darby, Managing Director at VCCP Blue, said: "It's been a privilege to work with Marie Curie on this campaign and help shine a spotlight on the charity's crucial work in end of life care."

The campaign launches this week and will run throughout November. This will be followed by a regular giving campaign, launching in the new year.

CREDITS 

Campaign Title: “The Goodbye We All Deserve”

Client: Marie Curie

Advertising Agency: VCCP Blue

Executive Creative Director: Mark Orbine

Deputy Executive Creative Director: Ciara O’Meara

Creative Director: Colin McKean 

Creatives: Ben Parmenter & Keilan Grant

Senior Designer: Holly Powell 

Managing Director: Roly Darby

Business Director: Danielle Durgan

Account Director: Tom Grantham

Account Manager: Summerly Burbidge

Account Executive: Dan Frawley

Joint Group Head of Planning: Andrew Perkins

Planning  Director: Lucy Cairns

Head of Creative Services: Sarah Lasenby 

Integrated Creative Producer: Eleanor Hardy

Broadcast Affairs Manager: Lucy Greenaway

Content Creation Studio: Girl&Bear

Agency TV Executive Producer: Olly Calverley

Agency TV Producer: Oona Webster Jones

Photographer: Ed Roe

Deputy Head of ArtLab: Scott Mitchell

Assistant ArtLab Manager: Nick Normann

Senior Creative Artworker: Paul Craig

Senior Post Producer: Alex Aarons

Hybrid Editor: Toby Cherrill

Production Company: Academy Films

Executive Producer: Simon Cooper

Producer: Tex Travi

Director: Chris Barrett & Luke Taylor

DOP: Patrick Meller

Editor: Billy Mead at tenthree

Edit Producer: Rachel Goodger

Assistant Editor: Reuben Williams 

Post-Production Company: Black Kite

Post Producer: Phil Whalley

Colourist: Tom Mangham

VFX:
Audio Post-Production Company: 750mph

Sound Engineer: Matt Valentine

Audio Producer: Cec Atkinson

Music Supervisor: Raife Burchell at Dirty Soup

Music: Breath by Stein Austrud. Recomposed to picture by Stein Austrud.

Label: Klangspot Nu Jazzical 

Starring: Grant Masters, Marina Fallahi, Abigail Moss, Helena Little, Freya Duffy Allain, Tony Chapman, Michael D’Cruze and David Wainwright.

Additional VO provided by Grant Masters.

Brand VO: Witney White

PR agency: The Academy 

Media agency: Medialab