The process of the National Child Measurement Programme

A mother and daughter watch the informational animated video together on a tablet.

A comparison of two scenes from the animation reflecting how they transitioned from storyboard ideas to the final sequence.

The mission.

Creating awareness about an obesogenic environment.

Research has found that a fifth of reception age children in Hertfordshire are classified as overweight or obese. This number increases to 50% for children in year 6. Hertfordshire County Council want to turn the tide on childhood obesity and increase awareness - including highlighting the effects that an obesogenic environment can have on young children and families.

Our mission was to create a bold and engaging animation for parents and their children to help them understand the importance of monitoring weight and help increase the uptake of the National Child Measurement Programme in schools. We were also tasked with highlighting to parents and children how obesity is being normalised within our society.

The animation.

We worked with parents and health professionals in Hertfordshire, conducting virtual focus groups to discuss the video’s messages, representation and overall look and feel to ensure it conveyed the right information in a way that was most useful to the target demographic.

The core audience was parents with their children being the secondary audience. With these two very different audiences in mind, we felt it was important to strike a balance between a fun and colourful animation style format and a more serious tone. We conveyed real-world examples in an animated format including fast-food restaurants, snack vending machines in Leisure centres and misleading social media imagery. This helped our viewers to resonate the message with their world but also allowed us to explain the NCMP process and BMI in an easy to understand language, that helped to reassure parents of the steps they can take to help their children grow up healthily and overcome the barriers that might prevent them from addressing their child's weight.