Many campaigns talk at stakeholders and fail to fully engage audiences. Stakeholder engagement requires a new set of skills within companies and organisations. Understanding the perspective of external stakeholders is often not considered part of the day-to-day strategy of an organisation’s core business… often to the detriment of the business.

Developing a strategy of who to engage with, when, why and what for can dramatically improve outcomes.

Talking Red

A bleeding disorder is a serious lifelong condition often requiring daily treatment and specialist care. Whilst the most well known condition, haemophilia, affects mainly men, there are in fact tens of thousands of women in the UK living with a bleeding disorder without even knowing it.

The Haemophilia Society is the only UK-wide charity dedicated to supporting all people with bleeding disorders. Interaction has worked on numerous programmes for the Society so the team was delighted to be asked to develop a campaign that would drive public awareness and engage women living with bleeding disorders.

Interaction's team of creatives developed a bespoke programme starting with the Talking Red name and logo. The PR team devised the Talking Red awareness week and flagship activities, Paint it RED and Red Knickers Night to engage women of all ages and create a fun campaign that would appeal to the public, healthcare professionals and potential corporate and celebrity supporters.

In just two years the campaign has had a media reach of 65 million including features in the Daily Mail, Mirror, Cosmopolitan, Woman's Own and a home page slot on the UK's biggest online support network, Mumsnet.

Our comms team secured corporate and celebrity supporters including Gok Wan, Emilia Fox, Carol Smilie, Next, Period Box and Diary Doll.

Visit www.talkingred.org for more information.

Working with patient organisations to raise awareness

Interaction developed the highly successful Buddy Awards programme for the UK Haemophilia Society, with the support of Novo Nordisk, to increase public and political awareness of the needs of the bleeding disorders community.

Launched at an event in the Houses of Parliament attended by MPs, policymakers, media and representatives of the medical and patient communities, the programme invites young people with haemophilia to nominate a friend, teacher, nurse, carer or family member who helps them cope with the everyday challenges of living with their condition.

Now in its fourth year, and rolled out worldwide by Novo Nordisk with national Haemophilia Societies, the Buddy Awards programme has itself been recognised with several awards.

Imaginative ways of creating value

England Amputee Football Association

Disproving the misconception that high profile CSR initiatives are essentially philanthropic gestures by very large corporates, Interaction developed a campaign for Takeda that started small but continues to generate enormous value in terms of employee morale, and by inspiring external stakeholders and the media.

Takeda’s therapy areas include diabetes and osteosarcoma, both of which can lead to limb amputation. We therefore identified an inspiring group of individuals who have overcome diversity to form the Great Britain Amputee Football team. The programme helps to raise awareness of the sport and encourage other amputees to become involved, demonstrating that losing a limb, whether through cancer, on active service or some other misfortune, needn’t prevent you from leading a full and active life.

Reaching out to potential players and supporters has encouraged multimedia support including coverage by the BBC’s One Show, Granada TV, regional television news and feature programmes as well as radio and print coverage reaching audiences of 8.8 million to date.

As every business leader knows, even small issues can all too easily escalate to crisis proportions if mishandled, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Speed of response is vital, and the media must be managed to ensure that clear, concise and informative messages reach the right audiences.

This is an area in which Interaction combines specialist expertise with long experience – especially of the pitfalls to avoid.

By their very nature, these interventions are confidential, but they include drug issues such as shortages, withdrawals and contamination, faulty appliances and quality control concerns, animal activist campaigns and countering alarmist media announcements. As the MD of a major pharma company observed, “The best work that’s been done for us is the work you’ve done that can’t be talked about.”

Whatever the issue you face, your brand reputation is in safe hands with Interaction.

Internal Programmes

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