The Voice Newspaper: Tick it to Change it, 2

The Voice Newspaper, Britain’s only black newspaper, is today revealing a new campaign to boost completion of the Black British Voices project (www.bbvp.org) – the first ever comprehensive national enquiry into the Black British experience, developed in partnership with the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and consultancy group I-Cubed. The push was created in collaboration with M&C Saatchi. While thousands have taken to the streets across the UK as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, The Voice Newspaper and Cambridge University recognised that we still lack the relevant government policies to create meaningful change for Black communities. With this in mind, and with Black Britons largely unrepresented in many facets of UK life, they came together to develop the Black British Voices project, with the aim of better understanding the Black British experience and influencing change in key areas. In order to encourage Black British people to complete the survey, The Voice Newspaper has worked with M&C Saatchi to develop an impactful new campaign, “Tick it to change it”. M&C Saatchi developed the strategy for the push based on focus group research run by The Voice and Cambridge University. Speaking to Black people from a wide range of backgrounds, it emerged that most participants felt a need for greater positivity around creating change, as well as a desire for collective action, with a call for Black Britons to come together to bring about change. The resulting campaign taps into these ideas with the concept 'Tick it to change it'. The work asks Black communities the question: “Can we write our own Black British narrative?” before inviting people to complete the Black British Voices study as a means to bringing about meaningful change. The ads show Black business owners, teachers, and other leaders within their fields demonstrating through a ‘tick’ hand gesture that with collective action, we can make change happen. Each execution draws on a specific societal problem that the Black British Voices project aims to change, from getting diversity into the boardroom to bringing Black history into our classrooms. As part of the push, The Voice Newspaper and M&C Saatchi are also working with the wider Black community and young influencers, asking them to post a photo of the tick pose, in order to boost completion and extend reach.