Polymedia, strategic PR specialists, has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award in recognition of an emotional campaign for Help for Heroes that reached an audience of more than 900 million.
Polymedia and Help for Heroes are finalists in the Integrated Communications Campaign of the Year category for the Facing it Together Campaign, which became a national talking point in September 2017
Facing it Together is shortlisted alongside huge brand campaigns including The Royal Mint’s Goodbye Round Pound, NOW TV’s Walking Dead promotion, and campaigns by Durex and Lynx.
The campaign was viewed by an audience of more than 100m on social media and made national news and TV headlines as it celebrated the bonds between the charity’s supporters and beneficiaries.
Jo Kedward, managing director at Polymedia, said: “This was an incredibly rewarding campaign to work on, which involved the whole team at Polymedia working alongside Help for Heroes. It connected with audiences on an emotional level as a truly integrated campaign, working across video, social media, print and broadcast.
“We are incredibly proud to have worked with Help for Heroes on this campaign, and to have achieved recognition in the PR Moment Awards.”
Facing it Together launched with a video featuring Iraq war Veteran Simon Brown, whose life changed following a sniper attack, and five-year-old fundraiser Tempy Pattinson.
Within three hours of going live on the Help for Heroes Facebook page, Si and Tempy’s launch video was viewed over 100,000 times, and received over 3,000 emotional responses and 1,600 shares.
The following day, the campaign made national news when it was featured in The Mail, The Sun and Mirror Online as well as ITV News at 10. The video was also picked up by major social media influencers including Unilad and LADBible, increasing the reach to more than 2 million views by the end of the day.
Si and Tempy were interviewed by Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on ITV’s This Morning, resulting in a developing story of an unlikely friendship in national news and further increasing social media views to 20 million within 36 hours.
By the end of the 12-day Facing it Together campaign, Si and Tempy’s video had been viewed more than 100 million times on Facebook.
The video was one of a series of six produced by Help for Heroes, which teamed up with Polymedia PR in the Facing it Together campaign’s conception and delivery, using Polymedia’s expertise as an effective and efficient way to help members of the charity’s community tell their stories.
Further videos, which paired Veterans with Help for Heroes staff, fundraisers and supporters, were rolled out over the following 10 days. By the end of the campaign, Facing it Together had reached an estimated audience of 900million, taking into account the social media, national and regional media coverage with engagement five times higher than average.
The PR Moment Awards, in association with headline sponsor Opinium Research, celebrate excellence and recognise and reward outstanding campaigns and exceptional talent in the UK PR and Communications sector.
