'Ask About Clots' communications campaign

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Ask about Clots – A case study of integrated communications
Ask about Clots
In April 2014 1000 Lives Improvement
launched the Ask about Clots campaign.
It aims to increase public awareness over
the risk of developing a blood clot
(thrombosis) while in hospital. The campaign’s simple message is encouraging
individuals to ask their health professional about their personal risk of
developing a clot, so that they can be assessed and treated appropriately.
In order to support the campaign’s integrated activity, a wide variety of
content was created to share key messages and increase engagement.
Website
A dedicated microsite was created for the
campaign, which would act as a “hub” for all of the
content and resources. It incorporated sharing
buttons for all the content, to encourage people to
share it further through their own social media
channels, as well as a place for the media to
download content to share on their own sites.
See: www.askaboutclots.co.uk
Case studies
People who had been affected by thrombosis were
approached to become case studies and ‘voices’ for the
campaign. Two case studies were developed, on of a
survivor, and one of a mother whose daughter died at the
age of 22 from a blood clot.
The people recruited as case studies recorded videos, gave
interviews to the media and spoke at the launch event.
See: Michelle’s story: http://youtu.be/4SlFKxn09HI; Wyndham’s story:
http://youtu.be/JKPXkM2kNY8

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Ask about clots – A case study of integrated communications
Blogs
Posts about the launch of the campaign
from its clinical lead, Dr Simon Noble;
Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Dr Ruth
Hussey OBE and a medical student were
included on the 1000 Lives
Improvement blog. Professional bodies,
including BMA Cymru and the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society in Wales, also
carried posts from their members on
their organisations’ blogs.
See: 1000 Lives Improvement blog: http://bit.ly/1qkXR1A; BMA Cymru Wales
http://bit.ly/1mIJ8Yr; and Royal Pharmaceutical Society http://bit.ly/1qkYmsu
Videos
Several videos were produced for the campaign,
including an animated information video designed
for displaying on hospital and GP plasma screens,
case studies, and a ‘news style’ video outlining
the purpose of the campaign through a patient
story and an interview with the campaign’s
clinical lead.
 News video – www.askaboutclots.co.uk/media
 Information video – www.askaboutclots.co.uk
Communications packs
Communications teams in NHS Wales organisations were equipped with
resources to promote Ask about Clots on their communications channels. The
contents of the pack included a briefing about the campaign, a template press
release for local press, the videos on disc, suggested tweets and other social
media content.
NHS Wales organisations also used their internal communications channels to
spread the campaign’s messages, recognising that many thousands of people
work in NHS Wales and are equally at risk from a blood clot.

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Ask about clots – A case study of integrated communications
Press and media activity
A press release and case studies were sent to the national
newspaper of Wales, the Western Mail, ahead of the launch.
Communications teams in NHS Wales organisations were
encouraged to send out press releases to local press,
including photographs taken in their area or of their staff.
A “letter to editor” from the clinical director, Dr Simon
Noble, was also used in the run up to the campaign, and
was published in newspapers throughout Wales and in
English papers with readership on both sides of the border.
The Western Mail piece was re-used during National
Thrombosis Week at the beginning of May, one week on
from the launch.
Broadcast outlets were invited to the launch and given
access to the people who shared their case studies with the
campaign. ITV Wales attended the launch. BBC Radio Wales
were actively courted, with a presenter asked to support the
campaign and speak at the launch event. He also recorded
an endorsement video.
Launch event
A launch event was held at the
Senedd, with presentations by the
Health Minister, Professor Mark
Drakeford AM, and the clinical
advisor Dr Simon Noble among
others.
The event was attended by NHS
staff from across Wales, staff from
the national thrombosis charity,
Lifeblood, Assembly Members, and
journalists. The launch was
covered on television, radio and in
the press.

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Ask about clots – A case study of integrated communications
Photos
The logo was turned into a photo prop and a
giant-size blood clot costume was borrowed from
Lifeblood: The Thrombosis Charity for photo
opportunities. Individuals enjoyed having their
photo taken and readily shared them on social
media using the hashtag: #askaboutclots
Pic: Health Minister, Mark Drakeford supports
Ask about Clots at the launch of the campaign.
Planning social media activity
The campaign was launched with a Thunderclap, gaining 121 supporters and a
potential reach of over 120,000 accounts.
Stakeholders, partner organisations and other
colleagues were provided tools to share the
campaign’s content in a communications pack.
‘Own the moment’ content has also been created
to be shared with relevant hashtags, e.g.
#casualty, #holbycity and recently
#ChampionsLeagueSemiFinal (see right)
Social media has also been used to have more
direct conversations with people.
Infographic
An infographic was created which communicated the
main messages of the campaign in both a visual and
accessible way.
Whilst it has been used as an information leaflet, its
main use has been to share elements of it on social
media in tweets, Facebook posts, and e-newsletters.
See: Next page

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Ask about clots – A case study of integrated communications
The infographic

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Ask about clots – A case study of integrated communications
Email newsletter
1000 Lives Improvement has an email
database of over 14,000 addresses. The
majority are people working in NHS Wales,
who were identified as being a key audience
of the campaign.
A special edition of the e-newsletter was
mailed on the launch date to announce the
beginning of the campaign. The email
newsletter integrated a case study, the
‘news’ video and the animated video, the
relevant social media links and #hashtags,
and elements from the infographic.
Syndicating news stories
The connectedness of NHS Wales websites
meant that the news story announcing the
campaign could be syndicated to appear on
the Internet and Intranet sites of every NHS
Wales organisation that is linked into 1000
Lives Improvement.
The syndicated news story was designed to
complement and not compete with communications messages promoted by
local organisations.
Integrating with other events
A month after the launch the campaign linked in with National Thrombosis
Week, which offered an opportunity to re-assert key messages from the
campaign. Ask about Clots is also linking with World Thrombosis Day in
October.
Find out more at
www.askaboutclots.co.uk