On a day when the whole world needed a great big hug, we worked with BBC Worldwide and Hey Duggee on behalf of Playtime PR to take ownership of National Hugging Day (21st January)

Hey Duggee is a BAFTA award-winning CBeebies show aimed at children aged 2 – 5 and centres around Duggee the dog, a ‘scout-leader’ who, in every episode, teaches the kids in his group how to do certain tasks. Every kid gets a badge for taking part and each episode ends with a Duggee Hug.

Challenge: To raise awareness of the Hey Duggee show and to take ownership of National Hugging Day (on 21st January)

Solution: To ensure the hugging messaging, as well as family messaging – an integral part of the campaign – came across within the interviews, we carried out exclusive research to find out who is being hugged the most. Family hugs topped the poll with partners, sons/ daughters and mum making the top 5 favourite hugs.

The research also revealed that Brits are in need of hugs – most of us only get two hugs a day, when we actually want six hugs a day. Did you also know that if a hug last longer than seven seconds, it releases oxytocin (the happiness hormone) to make us feel even happier.

Results: Working alongside Doctor of Happiness and all-round expert on Hugging, Andy Cope, we secured back-to-back radio interviews with key stations including BBC Oxford, BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Northampton, Radio Yorkshire and Downtown Radio to name a few.

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