Case Study: Barts and The London NHS Trust: Health in Ramadan Campaign
Introduction
Barts and The London hospitals produce some of the best clinical outcomes in the UK - evidenced by one of the best survival rate records in the NHS.
Its mission is literally to bring excellence to life – to give patients the best possible care so that they can live better, fuller, longer lives.
Programme Objectives
Barts and The London NHS Trust’s campaign objectives were as follows:
- Diversify audience at July 14 Health in Ramadan campaign event at London Muslim Centre to increase access of diverse communities
- Secure mainstream media coverage across London for the campaign
- Design and distribute dual-language leaflets detailing the Health in Ramadan campaign messages from the NHS to target constituents
- Secure ethnic media coverage on multiple platforms across East London, Greater London, and online Muslim communities.
PR Strategy and Tactics
Unitas Communications worked on four different segments of Barts and The London NHS Trust’s campaign, including event management and targeting a diverse range of people to attend the Health in Ramadan event at the London Muslim Centre. Unitas Communications tapped into its relationships with various community leaders and representatives in and around London to pitch the event and secure the attendance of guests that are representative of diverse communities. There was also a need to follow up with post-event contact and inform guests of other campaigns The Barts and The London NHS Trust were conducting.
Apart from event management, Unitas Communications devised a strategy for effective media management and media positioning leading up to the event. This included editing and distributing press releases to all mainstream media, informing them of the campaign launch and the objectives that drove it as well as securing mainstream media coverage for the campaign in the form of interviews, articles, broadcast and broadsheet media. Lastly, Unitas Communication also acted as a media enquiries liaison by responding to questions and requests for interviews with leading organisers of the vent.
Unitas Communications also liaised with different communities and communicated the campaign’s key messages in various languages, so as to ensure a diverse attendance. This included designing a dual-sided leaflet in English and Bengali that highlighted key messaged from the Health in Ramadan campaign. These leaflets were then distributed in highly populated mosques and to stakeholders in this centre to inform them of the messages that The Barts and The London NHS Trust espouses. Unitas Communications also liaised with various ethnic media platforms to maximise outreach and ensure people that read and listen to Bengali, Somali, Syllhati, Urdu, Arabic and Turkish obtain the same information.
Campaign Results
Over the course of the campaign, Unitas Communications secured coverage across various media platforms including BBC London in prime-time news and online package as well as a slot on BBC Radio 5. This coverage presented various opportunities for the promotion of NHS staff as well as case studies as interviews, to highlight the efforts of the team in the Health in Ramadan campaign. In addition, Unitas Communications secured media position in various ethnic broadsheet media as well as online platforms and video content syndication that reached various communities. This was supplemented by the distribution of 8,000 leaflets to Muslims in East London areas including Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Shadwell and others.
Evaluation & Next Step
The Barts and The London NHS Trust is keen to launch off of the coverage and media positioning it received through Unitas Communications, as a means of empowering the Health in Ramadan campaign and its effort to promote good health in various communities regardless of their age, gender, race, religion or ethnic background.