Creative Clinic is immensely proud to have worked on a purely pro-bono basis for the global appreciation movement ‘Clap For Our Carers’, during the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020 and again in January 2021 with the follow up campaign, ‘Clap For Heroes’.

Our work on the campaign won several prestigious awards during 2020: ‘Communications Campaign of the Year’ (Third Sector Award) and ‘Best Online Awareness Campaign’ (Third Sector Digital Award) as well as scooping a ‘Highly Commended’ nod for ‘Communications Agency of the Year’. In 2021, the work won two further silver and bronze Creativepool awards.

Creative Clinic advised on the ongoing brand strategy, messaging and implementation as well as designing the #ClapForOurCarers and #ClapForHeroes logo and brand identity, website, social media posts, t-shirts, window posters and downloadable campaign assets including activity packs for kids – from the very first national applause on 26th March 2020 and throughout the duration of the ten week campaign run.

Founded by Dutch Londoner Annemarie Plas, Clap For Our Carers is a not-for-profit movement created to enable structured community-wide weekly thanks to be given to NHS staff, key workers and all those working on the front line in the UK and across the world. Every Thursday at 8pm for ten weeks, communities across the UK stand united and connected on their doorsteps, balconies, gardens or front rooms to demonstrate their gratitude to the brave, inspiring NHS doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, emergency services, armed services, delivery drivers, porters, shop workers, teachers, waste collectors, manufacturers, postal workers, cleaners, vets, engineers and all those who are out there making a difference to our lives in these challenging times.

The campaign was hugely successful, with media coverage stretching across print and broadcast media and social media channels across the world. BBC 1, BBC Radio, BBC News, Channel 5, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News all broadcast the doorstep applause live every week, with ITV ‘pausing’ their usual programming so that viewers could go outside to clap, whilst Channel 4 simultaneously staged a special ad break takeover. The campaign continued to be covered weekly by newspapers including The Guardian, The Times, The Sun, The Mirror, The Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, whilst also achieving a page on Wikipedia.

The hashtag #ClapForOurCarers has frequently trended on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. The campaign has received support from global brands including Facebook (with a live interview with Facebook VP, EMEA Nicola Mendelsohn featuring our design work), Spotify who created Thank You Thursday playlists and ran ads encouraging people to clap, TikTok which has had over 413 million views on Clap For Our Carers related content, plus GoDaddy who donated hosting and Kindred who produced branded campaign t-shirts to our design with all proceeds going to NHS Charities Together.

In a video address to the nation, Her Majesty The Queen, Elizabeth II referred to the Clap For Our Carers campaign as an “expression of our national spirit”. All manner of celebrities and public figures have lent their support, helped spread the messages and clapped for our carers – far too many to mention here but including His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales; Her Royal Highness Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall; Prime Minister Boris Johnson; Nicola Sturgeon; The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan; Dominic Raab; Rishi Sunak; Sir Keir Starmer; David and Victoria Beckham; Daniel Craig; Sir Rod Stewart; Stormzy; Phoebe Waller-Bridge; Sir Elton John; Emma Willis; Claudia Winkleman; Declan Donnelly; Holly Willoughby; Cheryl Tweedy; Katie Price; Brian May; Kate Garraway; Gaby Roslin; Rita Ora; Rachel Weisz; Phillip Schofield; Eamonn Holmes; Myleene Klass; Gemma Collins; Sir Paul McCartney; Ricky Gervais; Kylie Minogue and Piers Morgan.

Although the Creative Clinic team really just wanted to help the campaign in the way that we best know how (by providing all of our support, strategic thinking and creative services free of charge as our way of trying to make a difference – particularly whilst all working remotely under difficult ‘lockdown’ restrictions) it was an unexpected surprise to see that the work we produced was also being acknowledged by our peers in the creative industry.

We are particularly proud to have featured in articles within leading creative sector publications Creative Review and Design Week and for our work on the campaign to have won a prestigious 2020 Third Sector Digital Award in the category of ‘Best Online Awareness Campaign’.