MCBD wins 7m business from charities consortium

moving%20peopleMoving People, a consortium of mental health charities, is understood to have appointed Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy to handle its £7m advertising business.

It follows a four-way pitch against M&C Saatchi, Euro RSCG and an undisclosed regional agency.

The consortium is made up of Mind, Rethink, Mental Health Media and the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. In March, it was awarded between £16m and £18m from the Big Lottery Fund and £2m from Comic Relief. The group has allocated £7m for a UK-wide advertising and social marketing campaign.

The four-year programme will also include events and projects to run alongside the campaign. It is based on an international “best practice” model that has already been launched in Scotland and New Zealand and aims to deliver a “measurable shift” in public attitudes to mental health problems.

It is understood the agency will now create a through-the-line campaign, which will include TV, print, press and digital and is expected to be extended further.

The events programme will include mass-participation events around the build-up to the 2012 London Olympics as well as local events, such as mental health workshops. It will also educate 10,000 trainee doctors and teachers in mental health issues.

Moving People’s £18m budget is being overseen by Sue Baker, a former marketing director at drug and alcohol charity Phoenix Futures. Baker has also worked at Mind and was marketing director of the Mental Health Fund in New Zealand. She joined the consortium as director in August last year.

Like Minds, Like Mine in New Zealand and See Me in Scotland have both included extensive multimedia marketing and advertising in addition to training and education.

Moving People will promote physical wellbeing and exercise as a key contributor to good mental health.

Neither Moving People or MCBD were available for comment as Marketing Week went to press.