UK’s Best Long-Term Campaign: ‘Innovative’ and clear evidence of ‘tangible impact’, say judges
Strategic healthcare PR and communications agency Evergreen PR has won the UK’s ‘Best Long-Term Campaign’ at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations ‘Excellence’ Awards - for an unprecedented second time in three years.
Evergreen PR picked up the prestigious award for its ‘Getting Veterans the Care They Deserve campaign’ with the Royal College of General Practitioners, which was designed to inspire GP practice teams to sign-up to the College’s Veteran Friendly GP programme, helping to improve the health of veteran patients.
Over a four-year period, Evergreen developed a series of breakthrough campaigns, combining a powerful creative concept with strategic media relations and stakeholder outreach to drive year-on-year increases in GP practices signing up to the programme.
The campaign generated extensive coverage across mainstream and healthcare trade media, including 12-minutes on BBC1 Breakfast, 9-minutes on BBC1 Morning Live, Sky News, The Guardian, The Independent, The British Medical Journal, National Health Executive, Pulse, GP Online and Nursing Times.
Influential stakeholders such as NHS England, the Institute of General Practice Management, the Queen’s Nursing Institute, and the National Association for Social Prescribing also backed the campaign.
The CIPR Excellence Judges commented: “Evergreen PR demonstrated excellent evidence of research and insights. With clear linkages between data informing the creative, the campaign's innovative strategy was not only thought-provoking in challenging the stereotypes of what 'looks like a veteran' and supporting GPs to recognise their healthcare needs, but it provided many opportunities for engaging news hooks to keep the story fresh in a multi-channel approach over a prolonged period of time. “
“With clear objectives that were exceeded year-on-year, the judges were impressed by the measurement and evaluation; clearly evidencing a tangible impact in increasing sign-ups to the Veteran Friendly GP Programme and thereby improving veterans' health and wellbeing.”
Leigh Greenwood, founder and managing director of Evergreen PR, added:
“We’re delighted to have won - for the second time in three years - the CIPR Excellence Award for Best Long-Term Campaign, an industry-leading prize that recognises strategic and outcomes-focused PR campaigns.”
“We’re inspired by ‘making health happen’ and, with the ‘Getting Veterans the Care They Deserve’ campaign, we’ve been able to make a real tangible difference. The campaign delivered an immediate impact and that impact grew every year as we built momentum until it became a mainstream requirement to get accredited.”
“The fact that our activity has helped ensure that the majority of GP practices in England are now Veteran Friendly accredited, improving health outcomes for veterans across the country, is something we are extremely proud of.”