Brief

Freshwater was asked by the Association of Anaesthetists to help to raise awareness of the widespread impact of fatigue on the NHS workforce and the subsequent consequences for staff wellbeing and patient safety. They also wanted to engage clinicians, NHS leaders and policy makers in conversation about the issue and encourage NHS Trusts and Health Boards to use educational resources designed to help tackle the issue. After a PR-led launch, Freshwater was asked to deliver an integrated campaign to build awareness in the run up to World Sleep Day the following year.

Delivery

Freshwater translated the findings of a membership survey into a package for the media which included a press release, access to spokespeople, detailed statistics and quotes from junior doctors who had been directly affected by fatigue. We worked with The Guardian on an exclusive package for its health pages, before going on to engage a broad cohort of media including the BMJ, Pulse, the BBC and UK national newspapers to ensure good media penetration for the story.

The survey findings and news release were communicated to the Association’s membership through owned channels (predominately email newsletters) in advance of the media outreach. This was done to ensure that they – the people most affected by the issue – received the information first. It also meant that they were ready, and able, to amplify the findings, and overall message, on social media as the news broke. This added an important element of authenticity to the story.

Following the media launch, we worked with the Association, RCoA and FICM to create a stakeholder map and engagement strategy. We outlined who they needed to reach, and engage, in order to effect real change on the front-line of the NHS and build on the momentum of the news coverage. This included mapping key parliamentary figures and also leaders responsible for workforce, wellbeing and patient safety at a series of non-governmental departments.

A joint statement between the three initial organisations was to be the cornerstone of the wider campaign. Freshwater’s experienced consultants and copywriters worked with the Association, RCoA and FICM to develop a succinct statement clearly outlining their position on the issues caused by fatigue, detailing their proposed solutions and including a compelling call to action for how others could become involved in the work they were doing.

Having drafted the communications strategy, identified the key influencers and decision-makers and agreed the message, Freshwater developed a creative identity and name for the campaign – #FightFatigue. The campaign and launch of the joint statement would take place online, and be underpinned by the hashtag #FightFatigue that all three organisations had agreed to adopt.

Our team of content marketing specialists and graphic designers produced striking infographics, website banners and email communications in the run up to launch day, World Sleep Day.

Freshwater also created a unique branded Twibbon for users to display on their social media accounts in support of the campaign, designed banners for the Association’s Twitter and Facebook profiles, created organic social media content plans for both channels and monitored and managed social media responses on the launch day of the joint statement.

We commissioned a trainee anaesthetist to use anonymous comments from the membership survey on fatigue to create a series of illustrations that were used to enhance the organic social media content. These illustrations became a powerful, visual representation of situations that the target audience would relate to and elicited the highest number of replies on social media, often sparking debate. To drive the conversation further, key stakeholders and appropriate healthcare ‘influencers’ were tagged in posts, as well as being contacted via direct message to promote the campaign ahead of launch day.

Results