Been a while since I last did this...here goes!
As part of an assignment, I did some research into the CIPR awards for the Home Counties South region. This years winners were all extremely good in their own rights, but it was the "Red for Heart" campaign, run by the British Heart Foundation that caught my eye.
In order to explain why this campaign won the gold award and determine the elements of best practice, I looked at each section and picked out what I think made it the best - I look forward to hearing whether or not you agree.
The "Red for Heart" campaign was run to increase public awareness of national heart month in its second year, an event that was set up in 2009 by the BHF.
The main objectives of the “Red for Heart” campaign were:
· To build a larger profile for National Heart Month , to be held in February 2010
· To contribute to meeting national fundraising targets of £1.5 million
· To build relationships and connect with regional media across the South
It's fairly simple and broad strategy was to build the profile for both British Heart Foundation and National Heart Month in the South, whilst also raising funds for the charity.
In order to complete this, they did a number of different things:
- Press releases were issued to freelance journalists and regional press across the South in September 2009, prior to National Heart Month 2010
On February 1st, the first day of National Heart Month; press launches were held at national landmarks across the South. These played upon a creative idea whereby landmark buildings including Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower were “turned red” with red lighting to promote the cause across the UK. This was used as an excellent photo opportunity for the media and also served as a stunt to mark the launch of National Heart Month.
The British Heart Foundation also nominated February 26th as “Wear Re
A “love notes” idea was used to encourage people to write down why they were supporting the British Heart Foundation. These were posted in British Heart Foundation stores around the UK. A number of celebrities including Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne created their own love notes in support of the campaign, giving a more media-worthy angle on the idea.
2010’s National Heart Month also served as a way for the British Heart Foundation to launch their BEAT code, a short sharp guide to having a healthy heart:
Be Active
Eat Healthily
Avoid Smoking
Take the lifestyle check
These tactics produced some excellent results, smashing their targets from the first year:
- The “Red for Heart” campaign received 269 pieces of regional coverage in the South
- They were also able to secure 20 pieces of broadcast coverage on major regional radio stations
This coverage combined amounted to an AVE of £225,579, which was a substantial increase compared to the previous year’s AVE of £206,262.
There were also nearly 16 million opportunities to see the campaign just in the South and East regions
A great PR campaign with some excellent results - no doubt about it. But what about that ll important phrase, "best practice" - well here's why I think it deserved to win:
The “Red for Heart” campaign managed to utilised their following on popular social media websites Facebook and Twitter, despite it not being integral part of the campaign. They used these methods of communication to successfully inform their stakeholders of upcoming fundraising events and important health information, rather than using them simply as a method of promoting one message repeatedly over the month-long campaign.
The campaign also demonstrated how a campaign can successfully deliver a huge return on investment with an almost non-existent budget. The campaign was run by one staff member relying solely on PR, with no advertising and marketing budget to run alongside.
However - much as I think this was great, I have my own reccommendations for making it better.
In time, the BHF could make use of an opportunity to take National Heart Month to an international audience.
The BHF could also look to use further celebrity endorsement with more media-friendly celebrities, which may make the campaign more appealing.
SO! Thats what I have to say...what about you?
Find out more here: http://www.bhf.org.uk/
3 comments:
You know what, I’m not sure whether I do think they did deserve the gold award or not, cant decide!
On one hand I think they were very successful because it was only a month long campaign? Did I read that right? – if so they achieved one hell of a lot of coverage in that time creating a lot of awareness.
On the first day of National Heart Month doing press launches at national landmarks lighting them up was quite clever to get coverage, but I can’t help think they could have done something more creative on the subject to really encourage fundraisers.
BEAT guide was good! What did they actually do with it? Was it just an online guide?
But on the other hand the idea of 'love notes' was clever! They should have used it more. Where they just put up like posters in the stores and no where else? If so I think they could have pushed this further as it adds a personal and quite encouraging/engaging aspect to the campaign. Where people who possibly aren’t donators, could be persuaded to become donators.
I think it’s hard for charities to keep coming up with fresh and engaging ways to get donations and support. Having a dedicated month to promoting awareness of the issue and the charity is one way of getting people talking. For just one person to run the campaign is really impressive and I think they did a great job. Securing the coverage and setting up the lighting event were great ideas to get people interested, they should have maybe followed this up with more appearances from the giant heart that is in the picture, creating further photo opportunities.
If you look at the three objectives that you laid out at the start I think they did achieve these, so yes they should be highlighted as best practice. It is hard to find fault with the campaign when you know that there was only one person running the campaign, so maybe there lies the problem, they should have sought more help in promoting the heart month events. I know volunteers can be hard to come by, but you said they used social media. This would have been a great way to get supporters involved by posting what they were up to and getting them to get their event in the paper. I know when I was at school and we would run fundraising events the local paper always showed up and we always got a mention in the Chronicle and Journal. What about extending the love note thing on Twitter, loads of celebs tweet and I’m sure they would be happy to help promote the cause. So instead of just using social media to tell followers what they were doing they could have engaged them by starting conversations about fundraising ideas or tips on how to follow their BEAT code.
Tina, I am not sure I understand your recommendation to extend the National Heart Month to an international audience though, as it’s a British Charity.
So like I said at the beginning a health awareness month is a good way to promote your charity and celeb endorsements always make it easier to get into the press and get the average persons attention. Good job BHF.
I do think this campaign has a lot of aspects which i believe makes the it a worthy GOLD winner, however there are a few recommendations that you have gone over which i think would have made the campaign a much bigger success.
I love the idea of building on the BEAT identity for reinforcing the campaigns objectives towards its audience.
Each element could definitely be expanded and emphasised to reach a higher amount of coverage; for example they could have used a lot more online networking to traffic people to the 'take the lifestyle check' page and your idea of using celebrity endorsement could be a brilliant way to bring into light the eat healthy element... using someone like Jamie Oliver to come up with some recipes etc. to promote the BEAT initiative.
Overall, this campaign is a great and well deserved CIPR PRide Award winner for sure :)
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