Title	THE CLINK
Brand	THE CLINK
Product/Service	RESTURANT
Category	B08. Calendars, Invitations & Greetings Cards
Entrant	McCANN MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	McCANN MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Clive Davis and Andy Fenton	McCann Manchester	Senior Creative Team

The Campaign

We’ve all heard stories of offenders trying to dig their way out of prison using utensils that were somehow concealed and smuggled in by friends or relatives. We embraced this approach and turned it on its head. We created a book, with a knife and fork secreted inside its pages, which invited journalists to dig in. The specially designed dust jacket introduced The Clink with an overview of the story we wanted to tell. The overall theme of ‘escaping’ was a snug fit for the brand and its main objective of helping prisoners escape a life of crime.

Creative Execution

Journalists get bombarded with mailers all the time. Some they don’t even open. So to make ours stand out – we disguised it. We made it look like something they had ordered themselves from Amazon. A book. The outer packaging had to look authentic right down it’s satisfying tear open strip. Inside the book looks and feels like a classic, weighty, hard back crime novel with glossy dust jacket and dark brooding photography over an embossed spine and cloth finish. ‘Did I order this?’ the recipient would ask themselves. ‘This looks interesting.’ The stark typography hints at an interesting read inside – until it’s opened and reveals the secret therein.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Firstly we needed to establish relationships with influential journalists, and get enough traction to build awareness. In 2017 The Clink has received praise from a Masterchef food-critic, featured on the DailyMail.co.uk and the message has been highlighted in an on-board Emirates magazine. In addition to social-change coverage, The Clink has been listed in numerous Top Places to eat lists, including the ‘Top 26 Places to Eat in 2017’ according to Olive magazine. This shows we are beginning to turn-the-dial; being seen as a great restaurant, not just a charity. Moving on this conversation puts the food at the heart of the conversation, with social-change a cherry-on-top. With a limited budget, a lack of sophisticated measurement-tools and a small time-period to consider, it is impossible to know the exact impact, but crucially the restaurants are growing in stature/reputation. Whilst the communications change perceptions, The Clink changes lives; reducing re-offending by 41%.

We had to reach a wide audience of consumers. But we didn’t have the luxury of a large media spend. So we decided to make the media work for us, by targeting journalists. That way The Clink’s story could reach far and wide. We targeted national and regional journalists directly, who specialised in restaurant reviews. Sending our message/invitation in the form of a book seemed like the perfect solution. After all, every journalist loves a good read.