Children are especially vulnerable, especially on the roads, so that’s where Churchill focused.

For decades, generations of British children have been kept safe on their way to school by ‘Lollipoppers’ – part-time workers in distinctive white coats who stopped traffic using a large ‘STOP’ sign shaped like a giant lollipop.

Everyone in the UK remembers the smiling, friendly Lollipoppers who helped them on their way to school - they’re a British institution.

But in recent years, local councils in Britain have faced savage budget cuts, which has led to thousands of Lollipoppers being removed from British streets, making our streets a lot less safe for children walking to school.

Last year, 4.1 million children walked to school. 29 children were killed walking on the roads and 1,350 were seriously injured. One child lost in this way is one too many.

We accessed 14,000 schools through the National Parents And Teachers Association. We sent out information encouraging the schools to apply for a funded Lollipopper.

We partnered with Channel 4, creating a spot starring comedian Robert Webb, launched during a heart-warming parenting show called ‘One Born Every Minute’. This introduced the fund, directing people to the Churchill website to nominate their school.

Specialist parenting social networks Mumsnet and Gransnet spread the word and we enlisted influential bloggers to support our cause.

We partnered with leading radio network, Bauer Radio, running localised activity across the country targeting parents on the school run. Presenters on each station mobilised their listeners to get behind the campaign. With 872 live shout-outs from local DJs, 12m people heard the radio campaign.

Our partnerships were supported with a targeted social campaign and a national PR campaign with celebrity parents; raising awareness of Churchill’s mission.

The campaign triggered an overwhelming public response, smashing every target set.

• We received 53,424 nominations, across 6,448 schools (versus a predicted 500 schools)

• Positive social sentiment around Churchill increased from 5% to 37% the day after the campaign launched.

• We drove a 65% increase in click-through-rate for Churchill generic terms in search

• ‘Churchill understands what matters to me’ – a key brand metric impacting brand consideration increased from a 6 month average of 41% to 46%

The first of the Churchill Lollipoppers have already been recruited, and In November 2016 we launched National Lollipopper Day, backed by national and local PR, to celebrate all of the UK’s Lollipoppers, and the wonderful role they play.