Challenge:

Insights: Asthma is of concern to all Australians. Every Australian either has the condition or they care about someone who suffers from asthma. Most Australians are therefore receptive to asthma-related messages when they appear in the mass media.

The changing nature of asthma triggers throughout the year provides a regular calendar of potential touch points to engage with, and educate, the media who in turn act as a conduit to relay timely messages to the wider community.

Campaign: Recognising the relevance and topicality of asthma, Ogilvy Public Relations Melbourne developed an ongoing media relations strategy to keep credible asthma messages in the media year round, harnessing changing seasonal triggers and providing journalists with ‘one stop’ access to Australia’s leading asthma experts.

This press office function has been undertaken by Ogilvy PR Melbourne consultants for over eight years, effectively reinforcing the Council’s position as the peak asthma body in Australia and a valuable and reliable resource for media.

Activities include health reporter liaison (consumer and medical press), development of sponsorship guidelines, media training and crisis management, as well as implementation of an annual media program designed to generate widespread grassroots awareness with angles ranging from ‘soft’ stories such as a ‘Spring Survival Guide’ for allergy sufferers and ‘Christmas Tree Asthma Trigger Alert’ to ‘hard news’ such as releasing the annual asthma death toll statistics.

The consumer media relations program is supported with an ongoing health professionals program, ensuring that health professionals who treat patients with asthma are up to date on the latest patient information and resources.

Results: Quality reporting of asthma in the consumer media keeps asthma top of mind in the community, it has reinforced the fact that we need to continue to take asthma seriously and it has increased understanding of the condition, its triggers and its management.

Media relations activities for the National Asthma Council Australia have also helped heighten political awareness of asthma and proved to be a key plank in the Council’s successful lobbying to have asthma made a National Health Priority Area.

The National Asthma Council’s press office is now the first port of call for medical journalists seeking local comment on any new asthma initiative including new research findings.

Challenge:

Insight: Body image, fitness and weight are very personal subjects – lecturing is ineffective. Real inspiration needs to come from personal key influencers as well as real Aussies with real life stories in the real language spoken on the street and in the regions. By harnessing the power of grassroots communication, it is possible to engage, empower and encourage fellow Aussies to Measure Up.

Campaign: To help communicate the important ‘How’ message, Ogilvy PR Melbourne took a two phase approach: A) engaging with health practitioners and providing them with important resources to help them champion the cause with patients; and B) making the messages as accessible as possible to the target audience.

General Practitioners received an early ‘heads up’ prior to the national campaign launch via a Medical Media campaign which saw background information displayed in GP staff rooms nationally. This tactic ensured that key influencers were well briefed and able to reinforce campaign messages once the advertising campaign commenced. Support patient information resources were also provided to health practitioners with a suite of additional ‘how’ materials also developed.

To tap into the critical regional audience, Ogilvy PR Melbourne created the ‘Country Pantry’ series of ‘how to’ food and nutrition fact sheets to provide families with real tips and ideas in the language they speak at home.

Recognising that inspiring, real life stories were fundamental to encourage other Australians to take action, Ogilvy PR Melbourne produced three online videos, showcasing down to earth real life success stories, allowing a metro family, a regional family and a community group to share their inspiring stories in their own words online. Online support for the campaign grew in conjunction with the growth of the campaign and availability of new in-line support tools, which were featured on a revamped campaign website.

Results: GPs ranked the Measure Up Medical Media social marketing campaign as one of the most memorable and valuable campaigns in 2010. Research has shown high awareness for the campaign and the waist circumference message and confirmed the consultancy’s positioning of just making small changes to make a big difference. Additionally the website revamp has boosted consumer engagement and interaction allowing more real Aussies to download practical resources, such as the Country Pantry fact sheet series, share tips and inspire each other to keep their waistlines in check.

Challenge:

Insight: When targeting butt litter messages to smokers, the public relations campaign needed to be mindful that socially many smokers already felt persecuted. The campaign’s message couldn’t point the finger at them or lay blame. The campaign’s creative ‘Don’t be a Tosser – Bin Your Butts’, therefore used humour to capture their attention.

Following extensive research and stakeholder consultation, a campaign was developed focussing on changing smokers’ behaviour at venues identified most at risk of increased littering. Harnessing hospitality industry and local government involvement activities aimed to minimise pressure on local governments and pubs and clubs and make it easier for them to take an active role in the campaign. This included providing bin infrastructure and promoting cleanliness.

Campaign: The public relations campaign encouraged a collective approach to reducing butt litter between the smoker, licensed premises, local government and state government. Campaign toolkits were provided to pub and club owners and local government staff. An incentive scheme was introduced to encourage licensed premises to buy appropriate butt bins. Radio, bus shelter and convenience advertising and a state-wide media campaign raised awareness of the issue and kept it on the public’s agenda. ‘Butts Champs’ took to the streets handing out ‘Don’t be a Tosser’ personal ashtrays and extensive media publicity highlighted the problem and what needed to be done about it.

Results: The campaign achieved a major increase in the number of smokers binning their butts, and no increase in butt litter, demonstrating that smokers’ behaviour changed.  Butt littering behaviour fell by almost half. Independent evaluation found 73% of targeted venues actively supported the campaign and 66% of Victoria’s local governments participated in the campaign. Media publicity firmly placed the issue on the public’s agenda –212 positive electronic and print media items were achieved over four months with the majority highlighting key messages.

The public relations campaign was awarded an International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill Excellence Award and a Public Relations Institute of Australia Golden Target Award in the environmental category.

Insight: Experience showed us that using donor families to tell their story was a powerful vehicle for motivating people to think about organ donation and then have a conversation with their families. Case studies also provided strong media interest. Therefore opportunities were created for Australians to share their stories online and in traditional media and at a grassroots level. Our approach was that mass media plus community outreach would result in many more discussions.

Campaign: The campaign was launched by the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd with a high profile donor family representative being widely featured in the media. Stakeholder briefings were held and community leaders were sent “call to action” kits to extend the campaign’s reach and encourage their involvement. Talk programs on radio and TV were targeted as were media doctors.

A social media campaign was implemented to dovetail with the mainstream advertising campaign and media relations initiatives. It provided the opportunity for real people to have discussions online, creating a burgeoning online DonateLife community. The campaign involved education and engagement strategies working across federal government agencies, state health departments and local governments.

Results: Campaign results included levels of family discussion increasing by 10%, of which 83% were rated by respondents as memorable conversations. Knowledge of family member’s wishes increased by 7%. Over 32,000,000 Australians were reached via extensive print, broadcast and online media publicity during the campaign. Social media activity was very successful with Facebook fans increasing 1,080 per cent during the campaign. DonateLife Twitter followers increased by 50% during the campaign period. Ninety five events promoted the campaign  and supporting activities were implemented by local councils, schools, GPs, hospitals and medical centres and Rotary, Lions and Probus groups.

The ‘Natural Gas – Positive Energy’ campaign represented reached out to Australians from all walks of life. The social marketing campaign sought to educate people about the benefits natural gas – and what the people of Australia can gain by using it to meet more of more of its energy needs. Positive Energy Ambassadors Julie Goodwin, Australia’s first MasterChef, and Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, were a key element of the campaign launch at Parliament House on 20 August 2009. The launch was attended by more than 120 guests including parliamentarians and advisers, government officials, industry representatives, and received strong media coverage.