Creating a Buzz on Social Media For Ed Miliband’s New Book, Go Big

The Challenge

Penguin Random House has been a pioneer in book publishing for almost 100 years. They recently partnered with Ed Miliband on his book Go Big – How to Fix Our World, which explores bold solutions to some of the biggest challenges society faces today. To support the launch, Penguin Random House asked Vox Pops International to create a video for their website and social channels that would bring real public opinion into the conversation.

With a focus on fixing world problems, intercept interviews were chosen as the best way to unlock authentic, real world insight from a broad mix of people. Penguin Random House wanted to ask the public just one powerful question, so the Vox Pops Pool was the ideal approach. It allowed us to put that single question to as many people as possible over a full day of filming, sharing shoot costs across multiple clients and making it a very cost effective way to capture one crucial question.

We filmed on Carnaby Street in London, a location chosen for its energetic feel and high footfall. Penguin Random House wanted to hear from progressive, enthusiastic people who would engage fully with the topic, and Carnaby Street attracts visitors from across the UK and beyond. This meant we were able to speak to a wide range of ages, backgrounds and ethnicities, resulting in a diverse set of perspectives and rich insight.

People talked about climate change, affordable housing, support for people on low incomes, better benefit systems, gender equality and racism. Many respondents linked these issues to their own experiences, which made the contributions especially powerful and heartfelt. The final videos balanced a light and engaging tone with serious reflection on global challenges, and concluded with an outro from Ed Miliband himself introducing the book and its themes. The result was a compelling piece of content that showed just how much people care about creating a fairer, better world.