The ENGINE MHP team celebrates its win at the virtual awards ceremony
ENGINE MHP and Alzheimer’s Research UK picked up the coveted ‘Charitable Campaign of the Year’ Award at the virtual Communiqué Awards this year for their collaborative and innovative campaign for increased research funding.
The campaign, ‘Shooting for the Moon: Securing New Government Funding for Dementia Research’, aimed to help secure a significant increase in UK government funding towards treatments for Alzheimer’s. It called for just 1% of the total annual cost of dementia to be put towards research into treatments for the devastating disease.
The simple yet effective campaign used resources on the ground, as well as the help of the charity’s president, previous Prime Minister David Cameron, which resulted in a commitment in the Conservative manifesto to deliver a ‘Dementia Moonshot’ of £1.6bn for research into potentially life-changing treatments over the next decade.
“Running a public affairs programme around two words could seem a bit simplistic. But ‘Just 1%’ worked for precisely that reason: creating momentum around a policy ask that could be easily understood by key audiences. It was great fun – and really rewarding to work with such a talented and passionate Alzheimer’s Research UK team,” said Robert Ede, associate director at ENGINE MHP.
“Our campaign galvanised politicians and the public around the need for greater investment to find new, life-changing treatments for dementia. ENGINE MHP helped us to build our reach and engagement with cross-party MPs, ministers and government officials. We’re delighted the campaign secured a ‘Dementia Moonshot’ commitment from the government, and thrilled that the campaign has been recognised with this award,” added Samantha Benham-Hermetz, director of Policy and Public Affairs, Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The ‘Charitable Campaign of the Year’ category, which is new for 2020, was open to any charity, patient or professional association, support group or voluntary/civil society organisation with an interest in the health and well-being of different groups of patients based in the UK. The competition was intense in the category’s first year, with another four campaigns making it to the finalist stage.
However, the Communiqué judges said that “Shooting for the Moon was a clear winner”, adding that “it was vibrant and targeted, with a simple but creative proposition, and was extremely well executed, with a clear impact for patients”.
For more information on all the individual winners, go to www.pmlive.com/communique/results or download the special Communiqué Awards 2020 brochure detailing all of the results at www.pmlive.com/cxresults.pdf.