The team for In My Shoes: 24 Hours with Crohn’s or Colitis celebrate their wins

At the first virtual annual Communiqué awards, two respective projects for Crohn’s and Colitis UK won big across the board.

Winning across three categories were communications agency Mearns & Pike and digital agency Electric Putty for their immersive app In My Shoes: 24 Hours with Crohn’s or Colitis, for Crohn’s & Colitis UK and Takeda.

The app enables people to step into the shoes of someone living with the lifelong conditions, and was supported at launch by a multichannel campaign which garnered 23,000 downloads, over 200 media stories and a social reach of more than 700,000 people. This resulted in a 27% increase in empathy and understanding of Crohn’s and colitis and a significant decrease in apathy towards the impact that these conditions can have on daily life.

Thanks to these excellent results, the campaign won big, taking home the Excellence in Patient Programmes Award, the Excellence in Healthcare Partnerships Award and the Porterhouse Medical Award for Innovation in Healthcare Communications.

Commenting on the campaign, the Communiqué judges said: “In My Shoes stood out for doing everything right, starting from the approach each party took to working as partners. Its use of app technology was executed brilliantly, but it wasn’t technology for the sake of it and the focus remained on the shared objective at all times.”

Mearns and Pike also picked up an Excellence in National or Local Education Meetings/Stand-Alone Events Award for ‘The World Through Patients’ Eyes: Immersive Role Play Training for Ophthalmologists’ for Santen.

“To have won four awards in one night feels truly amazing. It shows what can be achieved when we live our purpose to love what you do and bring others with us. In both of our winning campaigns everyone involved had a shared vision,” said Jon Pike and Kirsty Mearns, founders and directors of Mearns & Pike.

“We all had different strengths and skills to contribute and in combining them we were able to make the vision a reality. To share in the success of these award wins, with all these great people, makes it mean even more,” they added.

The team for Not Every Disability is Visible celebrating digitally 

Also winning across two categories was Evoke KYNE, for its ‘Not Every Disability is Visible’ programme for Crohn’s and Colitis UK and Janssen-Cilag Ltd. This campaign targeted signage on accessible toilets across the UK that shows a person in a wheelchair, perpetuating the idea that the toilets are only for use by those with visible disabilities.

The campaign informed UK business and the public of the invisible signs and symptoms of Crohn’s and colitis to challenge misperceptions and to change the minds of CEOs at target companies so that they update their accessible toilet signs.

“We are absolutely delighted by our wins recognising excellence in public health and media relations. The Not Every Disability campaign was steeped in insights and driven by creativity, to truly make a difference to the lives of those living with Crohn’s or colitis. This campaign brought about meaningful change underpinned by the passion of our team here at Evoke KYNE,” said Siobhan Reilly, senior director at Evoke KYNE.

“This campaign brought real change for Crohn’s and colitis patients in their everyday lives. They had clear measurable objectives, which they smashed, with a very clear call to action, which again they exceeded. The media strategy was thorough and clearly worked,” added the Communiqué judges.

To see the comprehensive list of all the 2020 results online, go to www.pmlive.com/communique/results

For this unique and unprecedented year, you can also download a special 2020 CommuniquéAwards brochure detailing all of last night’s results at www.pmlive.com/cxresults.pdf

And finally, if you missed last night’s fantastic live awards ceremony (or you just want to relive your success!) – it’s available at www.pmlive.com/cxhealth.