British Polio

Services: Public relations, Charity, Media relations

Situation

The British Polio Fellowship, the UK’s leading charity dedicated to helping, supporting and empowering those in the UK living with the effects of polio and Post Polio Syndrome (PPS), appointed the bcsAgency in 2009 to help raise awareness of PPS and increase membership to the charity.

 

Task

The bcsAgency team was tasked with increasing awareness within the consumer, healthcare and medical press of the 120,000 people living in the UK today with PPS – the same number as those with Parkinson’s. The team created a media relations campaign across the regional, national and healthcare press to raise awareness of the illness and help educate the medical profession.

 

Action

The bcsAgency established a feature tracking and media relations campaign using member case studies where possible to create human interest articles highlighting the modern day importance of the British Polio Fellowship’s work. A central point of the campaign is the annual British Polio Month, where the team operate a specific national press campaign using a database of spokespeople from around the UK.

In addition, the bcsAgency team works to generate communications with potential partners which has resulted in the British Polio Fellowship acting as medical advisors on a major Hollywood film due for release in 2012.

 

Result

To date the targeted British Polio Month campaign has secured coverage on the BBC News Channel, The Express, Pick Me Up, Daily Telegraph, Scotland on Sunday and Sunday Express, while the overall PR campaign has secured more than 250 UK-wide press features representing an amazing 7.5 times return on investment.