Mobilising political action through a creative campaign & budget

Challenge

There are 50,000 deaf children in the UK. 90% of them are born to hearing parents. The majority of those parents will have had little understanding of deaf people’s lived experiences and next to no knowledge of how to communicate with their deaf baby. We know that language acquisition in the first five years of life is essential for a child’s cognitive development and wellbeing.

Yet access to British Sign Language (BSL) as part of an early and comprehensive support package is not currently provided by the UK Government, meaning many families are faced with the dilemma of finding thousands of pounds for lessons - which are not geared towards early years communication -  simply to be able to communicate with their deaf child during those crucial, formative, early years.

The British Deaf Association (BDA) has big ambitions. Following on from the recognition of BSL as an indigenous British language with the BSL Act 2022, they are now urging our Governments to fund free access to high-quality sign language tuition to the families of all newly-diagnosed deaf children. To do that, we needed to raise awareness amongst the general public via an advocacy campaign designed to educate, inspire and drive action.

Solution

To ignite real change, we needed to tell the stories of the families impacted by the Government’s failure to fund free BSL tuition. We built our campaign around authentic, human storytelling, centring on deaf children and their hearing parents to highlight the deep emotional and practical challenges they face. Our goal was to drive public engagement and ensure this issue reached policymakers.

With a limited budget, we had to be strategic and creative, making every pound count. We focused on cost-effective digital channels, leveraging the power of Meta and TikTok ads, influencers, and user-generated content (UGC) to amplify our message.

To expand the awareness as wide as possible, we needed to reach colder audiences, so we focused on a mixture of broad and interest based audiences, who were likely to align with the message as either a parent, hearing specialist or socially driven individual, and go on to download an email template to send to their local MP, to demand Government action.

Creativity was integral to this campaign.The  name and core messaging needed to be designed to work seamlessly in both spoken English and BSL, ensuring accessibility and cultural sensitivity. Working closely with the BDA and deaf children and their families, we developed a bold, adaptable visual identity, inspired by the colours of the Deaf flag and featuring handprints from a deaf child. This made the campaign instantly recognisable and deeply personal, ensuring that the Deaf community could proudly champion and share it as their own.

We developed a toolkit of creative assets, including animated GIF stickers, video templates, and branded overlays, making it easy for families, influencers, and supporters to share their stories using the hashtag #BSLInOurHands. This approach turned everyday social users into campaign ambassadors, extending our reach beyond paid media.

Why Meta and TikTok? Meta’s precise targeting capabilities allowed us to reach socially engaged audiences—parents, educators, and socially driven individuals—who were likely to advocate for change. TikTok, as a high-engagement platform for younger audiences and creators, was key for organic reach, particularly with user generated content.

Impact

This campaign delivered tangible political change and significant public engagement, proving that even with a limited budget, strategic creativity can drive real-world impact.

Our advocacy led to free BSL tuition for parents and carers of deaf children being included in the Liberal Democrats’ 2024 General Election manifesto.

It also gained parliamentary recognition, with the campaign discussed in the House of Commons by Lisa Cameron MP and Mims Davies, Minister of State for Disabled People, and is now recorded in Hansard, the official Parliamentary transcript. Additionally, There will also  be a debate in the House of Commons on 20 March 2025.

Public engagement:

• 1.73 million impressions
• 1.24% click-through rate
• 7.24% conversion rate (resulting in 3,500+ email templates sent to MPs)
• 60% of template downloads came from cold audiences, proving our strategy successfully converted awareness into action.
• Cold audiences had an 18% average conversion rate, demonstrating the emotional power of the campaign.

The campaign also skyrocketed BDA’s online presence, driving over 18,000 profile visits during the campaign period.

For BDA, this was a milestone moment—it was only their second-ever paid media campaign, yet it drove unprecedented digital action. This marked a turning point in their approach to advocacy, proving that well-targeted digital strategies could engage wider audiences and directly influence policy.