Finalist
Encephalitis International: Small Team, Global Impact
Summary of work
Encephalitis can change a life in hours, yet most people have never heard of it.
Affecting an estimated 1.5 million people globally each year, delayed recognition of this brain inflammation can lead to devastating outcomes. For Encephalitis International (EI), increasing awareness is not just a communications challenge, it is critical to saving lives.
In 2025, EI partnered with Camino Communications and POP Health Communications to transform both its visibility and communications capability. Camino rebuilt EI’s digital presence into a structured, high-performing platform, while POP introduced a proactive media strategy to take encephalitis into mainstream conversation.
Anchored by World Encephalitis Day, the campaign combined bold creative, lived experience and milestone-led storytelling to drive global relevance.
The impact was immediate and sustained: 15.1 million campaign impressions, ~180 million media views and a 64% increase in media mentions. Crucially, audiences didn’t just see the campaign, they acted, engaging directly with educational content and improving understanding.
Beyond awareness, the programme established a scalable, always-on communications model for EI, while enabling Camino and POP to expand their credentials as growing independent agencies
Together, the partnerships delivered lasting value for both the organisation and the communities it serves
Judges’ comments
The Encephalitis International programme had a clear strategy with lived experience. It had solid results versus objectives and it smashed the targets. The capacity building and long term view was great and it had really solid good results, felt like a partnership.
