Collaborative Practice: Established Brief - Save The Children

Vanessa and I will be working together for the collaboration brief. The brief that has been chosen is Save the Children, a project which inspires and motivates dads to read to their children. This seems perfect for us as we both feel strongly that children should read when they are younger because it gives them a better start in later life. Below is the brief:

Save the Children

Inspire and motivate dads to read to their children

Background

On the 8th September 2014, Save the Children launched its most ambitious UK-wide campaign – 'Read On. Get On.' – focused on getting all children reading well (reading well meaning reading book such as Treasure Island or Harry Potter) by the age of 11. We created a coalition of charities, corporates, head teachers and parent organisations that will push our mission.

Our mission is to ensure that by 2025, every child is a confident reader by age 11.

Reading is the key to a child’s future: it unlocks their potential and opens up a world filled with possibilities.

For our poorest children, reading well is their best route out of poverty: they do better at school, better in the workplace and are better placed to give their own children the best start in life.

However, every year in the UK, 130,000 children leave primary school not reading as well as they should. This figure includes 40% of all children from poorer backgrounds – a shockingly high proportion.

This means that over the next decade almost 1.5 million children will start secondary school already behind with dismal consequences for their futures.

The UK has a strong link between low pay, unemployment and poor literacy. Not reading well can mean a life sentence of poverty, and it’s not just these children who don’t have the chance to unlock their full potential. Our research has also found that the UK’s GDP could be an extra 2.1% higher by 2025 if we can get all our children reading well by age 11.

The 'Read On. Get On.' campaign cannot do this on its own. We need government, political parties, schools, businesses, communities, parents, grandparents and even well-known ambassadors to play their part and broaden the campaign.

'Read On. Get On.' is about achieving lasting change and ensuring every child has a good chance to reach their potential. 

The full report can be found in the accompanying Project Pack to this brief.

About Save the Children

Save the Children has worked in the UK since the 1920s. We campaigned on children’s nutrition from the 1930s which culminated in the introduction of free school meals for poorer children in the 1944 Education Act.

Today we work in communities across the entire UK, reaching 26,000 children a year. Save the Children works in more than 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. We believe that every child, wherever they grow up, is born to shine.

Proposition & target audience

10 minutes a day reading can make a difference to that child’s future potential.

From an extensive literature review we have established that as little as 10 minutes reading a day would make a real difference and everyone can do something. Whilst the number of minutes does not need to be exact, advice from experts was that a message of ‘as little as 10 minutes a day’ could have a big impact without feeling like an onerous task to parents and carers. It will take everyone: mums, dads, carers, grandparents, businesses, volunteers, teachers and role models like footballers and others.

The 10 minutes of reading can be anywhere and everywhere – from reading books, to tablets, road signs and high street signs. The essential thing is to have the regular, consistent time with an adult.

In addition, we know that mothers and fathers reading with their children matters, but fathers can have a particular impact. A father reading daily to a five year old means that child’s reading will be almost half a year more advanced than a child read to less than once a week by their father.

However evidence suggests that Fathers are likely to read less to their children

Fathers can play an important role in helping support their children’s reading. However, fathers often read less to their children than mothers, particularly low-income fathers. New research for 'Read On. Get On.' shows:

• Over a quarter of fathers read just once or twice a month, or even less frequently. In contrast, only around 10% of mothers read to their children this little.

• Low income fathers are more than three times less likely to read less than once a week to a five-year-old than fathers from the richest families.

• They were over 14 times as likely never to read to their children than better off fathers.

• But fathers reading can have a bigger impact on children.

• Where fathers read less than once a week to a five-year-old child, by the age of seven they will be almost half a year behind their peers in reading, compared to those who had been read to daily.

• Children who were not read to at all by their father at the age of seven were over a year – 13.1 months – behind those who were read to daily at the age of seven. 

The Creative Challenge

Your brief is to deliver a creative resource that will inspire and motivate our target audience of dads to read to their children for just 10 minutes every day.

The creative can take any form (for example print or online advertising, a video, infographic, an experiential movement etc), but it must leave audiences with an understanding of just how much of a difference 10 minutes a day reading with a child can make.

Take a look online at a film we commissioned – ’10 Minutes A Day Could Change Everything’

Audience

Dads – mainly those with children under 11 and particularly those in low-income families (C2DE socio groups). 

In the Project Pack you'll find a supporting research document from EdComms.

Objectives

• To increase home reading by dads - 10 minute a day message to children
• For dads seeing the campaign to have increased awareness that reading just 10 minutes a day with a child makes a difference to their potential
• Build upon the campaign’s launch momentum by continuing to raise salience and public profile of the issue
• By 2025 all children in the UK reading well by the age of 11
• To raise awareness for the Save the Children brand, and raise awareness for UK child poverty, reading in particular

What is the personality?

The tone of 'Read On. Get On.' to parents is fun, personable, enthusiastic and engaging. We want people to know that they can make a difference in their child’s life for only 10 minutes a day.

Mandatories

The creative must follow the 'Read On. Get On.' guidelines and include the Save the Children logo, both of which can be found in the accompanying Project Pack.