The Lucid Group Award for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility

Summary of work

For ten years Merck has been donating the treatment for schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa, providing over 500 million free tablets to more than 100 million children.

Merck wanted to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the donation programme and increase the disease’s share of voice. So we created #MakingSchistory – a platform that is unique, creative, easy to spell, say and share to engage stakeholders in vital conversations. The best way to ensure cut-through would be with a strong, clear visual that brought the focus onto schistosomiasis. We floated a 25m long yellow schistosomiasis worm emblazoned with #MakingSchistory on Lake Geneva during the WHO NTD Summit. Lastly, we published a report, The People #MakingSchistory: The Global Fight Against Schistosomiasis giving a voice to those involved in the fight for elimination.

During the campaign, schistosomiasis had the highest SOV during the summit, #MakingSchistory was independently used by the WHO and Médecins Sans Frontières, and coverage was secured in The Guardian, BBC World Service and the British Medical Journal.

“It’s a strong commitment, not only for the elimination of schistosomiasis, but also as a strong and responsible partner in Global Health.” Belén Garijo, Member of the Executive Board of Merck & CEO Healthcare.

Judges' comments

The entry from Merck and MSL was a strongly reactive, professional and integrated campaign with good goals. The judges praised the campaign's creativity, noting how the inflatable worm helped connect with a broad audience enabling them to understand a little-known disease and how it was refreshingly different from the kinds of communications the industry usually uses. They were impressed by the amount of third-party stakeholders brought on. The judges praised the donation programme itself and how the company is clearly committed to it for the long-term.