Excellence in Media Relations

Summary of work

Pure Earth, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to solving pollution problems in low- and middle-income countries had the ambition to elevate awareness of pollution, not only as a public health problem, but also an economic issue. In October 2017, Pure Earth, as part of The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, published a report which exposed the cost of inaction against pollution, measured in lives, money and lost opportunities for sustainable development. Pure Earth partnered with TogoRun who planned and delivered a media campaign to be launched in conjunction with publication of The Lancet report’s findings. The campaign messages were delivered via online, print and broadcast reaching 1.8 billion people.

TogoRun found a compelling way to do this via the development of a large scale multichannel communication campaign that centred on the publication of a report in The Lancet – the first global analysis of pollution and its impact on the world population’s health and economy. We set out to raise awareness of the report by leveraging traditional and social media and writing a ‘call to action’ open letter to media publications highlighting the gravity of the pollution problem.

Judges' comments

This innovative and creative campaign was well executed and included strong evidence of engagement. TogoRun and Pure Earth delivered an ambitious campaign that blended traditional and social tactics to tackle a big challenge.