In this blog post, we share some of these award-winning campaigns created and delivered by our members and agencies based in the South West.
Public Sector Award - sponsored by CARMA
Purplefish
Empower your community – recruiting volunteers for the Police & Crime Commissioner – Avon and Somerset
The role of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) is to scrutinise, review and improve police practices. This involves working with members of the public to provide an independent view as part of one of four scrutiny panels. The panels look at different aspects of police work across the Avon and Somerset area including the use of force; stop and search; how people are treated in custody; and complaints made to the Police.
The Avon and Somerset Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) set out to recruit volunteers for four different panels: Independent Scrutiny of Police Powers (ISOPP), Independent Scrutiny of Police Complaints (ISOPC), Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) and Out of Court Disposal volunteers (OOCD).
The campaign aimed to recruit quality candidates with a focus to encourage diversity of applicants particularly women, people under 30 and those from Black, Asian, mixed and minoritised communities who are interested in changing the way the community is policed.
Positivity and confidence in policing and their powers are at a low, so we used the strapline ‘Empower Your Community’, to provoke interest from people who were already passionate about topics such as stop and search, violence against women and girls and the use of police force. This acted as a clear call to action to mobilise the target audience.
Imagery was personal and relatable, however more provocative images on a series of 8-sheet posters around Bristol helped to further promote a strong sense of activism from potential applicants.
Existing panel members were consulted at every stage of the campaign and were involved in the decision-making process.
During the campaign, a report was published by one of the current volunteer panels, which reviewed the arrest of a young mum on a bus in Bedminster. The report concluded a ‘disproportionate’ use of force was used.
The release of the report confirmed the importance of public scrutiny of the Police and how they use their powers and perfectly demonstrated the message of the campaign.
Outcomes of the campaign included coverage in BBC Online, Bristol Live, two radio interviews on BBC Radio Bristol, a total media reach of over 8 million, over 11,000 social media engagements and over 2,300 application webpage views.
As a result, 25 people applied, which led to 19 roles being recruited across all four panels.
Not For Profit /Charity Award
Speed Communications and Sanctuary Care
Sanctuary Care briefed Speed Communications to step-change the perception of living in care and build awareness of Sanctuary Care as a trusted, empathetic care provider that people recognise.
Amidst swathes of negative media coverage and research suggesting 76% of the British public lack trust in care homes, Speed’s campaign needed to build an emotional connection with the audience to break down the stigma surrounding the elderly care sector. To achieve this, highlighting good news stories and leveraging Sanctuary Care’s core USP, Enriching Lives, was fundamental.
Grounded in academic research, the Enriching Lives framework is based on the premise that residents need to have ‘six senses’ met to feel fulfilled. It is this which sets Sanctuary Care apart as a provider going above and beyond to deliver truly-person centred care. The challenge was determining how to communicate what this framework means – and why theaudience should care.
Speed launched the campaign with a bang, bolstering Sanctuary Care’s academic research with a nationwide survey to create a compelling news hook that would resonate with target media.
To maintain momentum throughout the 12-month campaign, Speed delivered drumbeat coverage grounded in people-centred storytelling – communicating Sanctuary Care’s unique platform by putting real people at the heart, with uplifting human interest stories supported by proprietary research data. Examples included:
• Alpaca therapy visits to care home residents in Leicester
• Recreation of granddaughter’s wedding for a grandmother with dementia in Essex
• Staging “Glaston-mead” music festival for rock-loving residents in Worcester.
These positive, people-centred events provided the opportunity to bring journalists into the homes to deliver first-hand experience of the Enriching Lives framework in action.
“Enriching Lives is the golden thread which runs through our entire business. We needed a compelling campaign to bring it to life day in and day out. This campaign did just that.” - Chris Poole, Sanctuary Care
Low Budget Campaign Award
Grayling and LegumeChef
Cooking over fire with LegumeChef
LegumeChef is a campaign sponsored by trade associations in the US that aims to promote greater consumption of pulses for the sake of individuals’ health and wellness. It’s part of a worldwide effort by the USA pulse industry to show why lentils, dry beans, chickpeas and dry peas are considered ‘superfoods’ of the future.
After the campaign had launched in Europe in 2020, Grayling was tasked with launching LegumeChef in the UK. They set up an Instagram page and have been growing the account over the past few years through a targeted social and influencer strategy designed to raise awareness and increase social following.
In August 2022, the team partnered with Chef Tom Hunt to create three original pulse-based recipes in the form of Instagram Reels for his channel and LegumeChef’s, allowing them to create a bank of original and shareable content for different uses across social media, print and online. In addition to social content, they also pitched his recipes to national media titles and secured two national pieces of coverage on The Guardian and the Independent.
The social media content had a combined account reach of 227,391 across Tom’s and LegumeChef’s channels, including 2,993 likes, 349 comments and 4,430 saves.Tom’s recipe Reels had 5,287 combined views and led tochefs and foodie personalities engaging with his content, including @mcmasterchef, enabling us to reach new and relevant audiences.
Given Tom Hunt’s affinity to the brand and how successful his content was both across social media and media, the US Dry Bean Council asked him to be a speaker at BeanCon23, a global conference focused on bean trends, to talk about the changes he’s seen in the consumption of beans by consumers and their use by chefs in the UK and across Europe.
Integrated campaign of the Year
Speed Communciations and BRITA
BRITA Perfect Pairings
2022 was one of the toughest years on record for the UK hospitality industry. A combination of recovering from Covid lockdowns, supply chain issues, resourcing problems and surging energy costs, meant there was very little good news in the sector.
The impact was felt no more so than on hospitality workers themselves, with 4 out of 5 having experienced mental health issues in their careers.
So BRITA Professional, one of the leading voices and partners to the hospitality industry, wanted to lead a positive change and focus on one of the incredible things about the industry….its people and more importantly what they mean to each other.
BRITA Perfect Pairings was a campaign to remind people in hospitality, that even in the bleakest times, they have supportive shoulders to lean on. So first, with the support of The Burnt Chef Project, a globally recognised not-for-profit social enterprise, we got the conversation going in the media.And then we took it to the hospitality workers themselves, giving them the chance to tell the real, human stories behind workplace Perfect Pairings – what forming great friendships at work really means. We even gave people and their Perfect Pairing the chance to escape the everyday with a ‘Bestie Day Off Ever’ competition, to win a Michelin-Starred adventure together.
Not only did Perfect Pairings get people talking, reaching more than 3.25 million people, it helped shift the mindset of an entire industry, inspiring a whole host of wonderful initiatives.
And by raising the importance of mental health in hospitality, Perfect Pairings gained an impressive 550% above target media coverage. But it also spread positivity for BRITA Professional in other ways, with a whole load of positive sentiment.
Consumer Relations Award
Grayling and Cosy Club
Cosy Club Christmas 2022
In October 2022 Cosy Club, the popular casual dining restaurant and bar chain, turned to Grayling to work with them to help achieve two business objectives: To drive Christmas bookings until 24th December and to create excitement and noise during the festive period,with a particular focus on two ‘new opening’ sites in Harrogate and Chester.
In order to address these objectives, and with just eight weeks to implement the proposed activity, the team developed a tightly targeted strategy. A hard-working press office underpinned the whole campaign whilst a partnership with comedian and social media influencer offered additional support and social buzz to the priority site in Chester. Simultaneously, a promotional street-team drove footfall to the second priority site in Harrogate.
When considering the perfect partner to generate buzz and excitement around Cosy Club's festive offerings and increase footfall in the Chester site, comedian and social media sensation Troy Hawke was the first choice. Famed for his iconic Greeters Guild videos where actor Milo McCabe, AKA Troy Hawke, generously receives passing customers into various locations.
Troy’s perfectly on-brand persona and appearance meant the partnership came across authentically and was successful at putting a smile on people’s faces, accumulating over 429k views across Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and generating masses of positive engagement.
Grayling’s hardworking press office generated 102 pieces of media coverage overall, with a reach of 206mand 360 pieces of influencer coverage from group dinners and individual reviews.
Over 2,000 vouchers were distributed to Harrogate locals and visitors through the street team activity, with feedback suggesting the activity had successfully increased local awareness and incentivised visitation, with many recipients planning to head to the site straight away to redeem their vouchers.
The Cosy Club festive offering was popular and well received by journalists and digital influencers and the campaign secured significant results.
To see the full line-up of winners click here.