Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships

Summary of work

AstraZeneca’s bold ambition pre-COVID-19 was to eliminate cancer as a cause of death, however the pandemic derailed this. To get their primary objective back on track, they wanted to play a part in rectifying the disruption to cancer care services globally.
By the third quarter of 2020, cancer diagnoses had fallen by approximately 40%, caused in part by people’s fear of contracting COVID-19 at hospitals and clinics. Across the globe, the pandemic publicity deterred patients from seeking medical attention for new symptoms or attending routine checks.
AstraZeneca launched an awareness campaign New Normal, Same Cancer with the simple call to action: Don’t wait. Contact your doctor. Get checked.
AstraZeneca wanted to unite organisations under the same banner to ensure consistent and aligned messaging, ensuring local relevance and flexibility to adapt to current healthcare capacity. Central video assets were designed and created with input from global patient advocacy groups (PAGs) representing the main cancer types.
This video content was then shared with AstraZeneca country offices who worked with local PAGs in a collaborative partnership to tailor the campaign to their needs.
Assets were made available in October 2020 and the campaign has launched in 67 countries through a successful collaborative approach.

Judges' comments

This entry from AstraZeneca, MHP and GCI was well articulated with an extremely impactful message, which was amplified across society. It was a well argued, well structured, well evidenced campaign and the judges really got a sense of how it was really scaled incredibly rapidly. A huge issue, with a clear strategic approach and strong objectives.