Don’t hang up. Hang on.

The Challenge

Research by STAMMA found that around 65% of calls to businesses made by people who stammer are mishandled, with callers often being rushed, interrupted or even hung up on. At least 550,000 adults in the UK stammer – which, according to Contact Babel, the leading analyst firm for the contact centre industry, equates to more than 43.5 million calls made by adults who stammer every year. For many, the hardest moments come right at the start of a call, when they are asked to provide ID information – often their most difficult words to say.

The Approach

At the heart of the campaign is a hero film, featuring a young man with a stammer who receives a routine call from his local garage. As he starts to speak, the film visualises the expectation that he’s going to be hung up on or rushed through the appearance of a gremlin-like hand, shot in-camera, reaching from his phone to torment him – a metaphor for the fear of how others might react, based on past negative experiences. When the caller realises what’s happening and pauses to give James time, the hand disappears.

The message is clear: a moment’s patience can make all the difference. The film closes with the line “Don’t hang up. Hang on.

The campaign was created with authenticity in mind. Louis, who plays the film’s hero, has a stammer himself, and the work was shared widely within the stammering community prior to launch to ensure the portrayal was sensitive to the experiences of people who stammer.

The film was supported by DOOH executions styled as dramatic movie posters, each reinforcing the campaign’s call to action and directing people to stamma.org/nightmares.

We created a prototype of the gremlin hand as a phone case to bring it to life as a tangible concept.