Excellence in Communication Through Creative Execution

Summary of work

Childhood dementia is a devastating disease, with parents watching their children gradually lose the ability to speak, see and walk. Political and public awareness of this rare disease is low, compounding diagnosis, access and service challenges. We needed to bring childhood dementia into the mainstream consciousness and drive meaningful conversations with those who could effect change.

With our client and four patient-community partners, we co-created a visually arresting creative campaign. Our creative platform captured the highly emotive issue of children’s milestones: the Dementia Strikes Children Too campaign was born.

In striking posters, children featured alongside their own headline copy. Newly created

www.childhooddementia.co.uk hosted educational content, and a digital and media strategy was deployed to support launch. Strategic campaign placement at Westminster Underground station was so effective that a journalist triggered broadcast coverage after seeing the posters on his commute. 70% of coverage included the creative visuals or videos.

The campaign worked. We drove 48,000 users to our website in the first month. Almost a year later, one in five MPs recalled the campaign and childhood dementia. The awareness has since helped us directly create opportunities for discussion about access and patient needs with our client, advocacy groups and MPs.

Judges' comments

The campaign by Portland PR and BioMarin employed targeted location based advertising very well, with striking visuals and measurable outcomes. It was a sensitive treatment of the topic, with strong effect.