Research found out that we’re all a bit, erm… awkward. To be more specific, we’re awkward around disabled people. In fact, two-thirds of British people told Scope that they just don’t know what to do when they meet someone disabled. That means we panic. We freeze. And we worry about getting it wrong so much that we go out of our way to avoid disabled people altogether.

Scope realised that this type of ‘innocent ignorance’ is easily tackled and that’s why they created ‘End the Awkward’. We didn’t want to preach or lecture.

The best way to shine a light on awkward behaviour is to play it back in real-life scenarios – and the best way to show those is through video content. We realised that a humorous video series addressing real-life awkward situations could be a powerful way of engaging and informing our target audience of 18-35 year-olds.

The bespoke content lived exclusively on Channel 4’s on-demand platform All 4 for 30 days before becoming available to view via Scope’s social channel and website.

To promote the content series, branded TV spots ran across all Channel 4 and E4 programming. TV was our main traffic driver but assets were extended across YouTube and Facebook whilst photos from the promo trails were also used in Scope’s shops.

Channel 4 also provided additional editorial support, featuring on ‘The Last Leg’ for 2 straight weeks and in ‘Very British Problems’ too. On the date of release Alex Brooker was interviewed talking about the series on ITV News, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News, BBC Breakfast, Sunday Brunch and a Reddit takeover.

The series was the first advertiser-funded series to run on All 4, and is one of the top 10 performing series within the 4 shorts strand of short films.

We made 84% of viewers think differently about disability after seeing the campaign

The campaign reached over 60% of 18-35 year olds, with view completion rates over 90% on YouTube.

Research indicated that the series had made a significant impact in terms of attitudes and behaviour; 71% said they would talk about the content and issues raised with friends and family.

Minister for Disabled People Justin Tomlinson said that the campaign “has set the standard for disabled representation both on and off screen. By partnering with charities to raise awareness of specific issues … they have made a real difference.”