Excellence in Combined Earned/Paid/Owned Communications

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This category recognises best practice in earned/paid/owned communications deployed across multiple channels for prescription medicines, OTC products, medical devices, disease awareness initiatives and consumer health brands.

This category is all about a strategic, insight-driven approach to using different channels, carefully linked together, to engage audiences. This might be referred to as multi-channel, omnichannel or integrated.

Entries should illustrate how objectives are met through strategy(ies) delivered across a number of channels and provide a clear rationale for selection (including a combination of earned, paid and owned channels from the list below):

  • Earned (e.g. broadcast, print, social, digital)
  • Paid (e.g. broadcast, print, social, digital)
  • Owned (e.g. website, online hub, emails, rep or MSL materials)
  • Experiential
  • Influencer-driven whether earned or paid (HCPs, patients, other stakeholders)
  • Publications/scientific presentations
  • Congress
  • Non-personal (digital/online advertising)
  • Out of home.

Judges will be looking for:

  • Smart use of channels to reach clearly defined audience/s.
  • Responsible initiatives that deliver effective communications (where all forms of communication are carefully linked together), together with clear benefits for stakeholders
  • Initiatives that drive awareness, knowledge of a disease/use of products to improve patient outcomes
  • Initiatives that enhance the reputation of the industry
  • Clear outcomes e.g. positive impact on patient care or delivery of care. Where evidence isn’t available, please include indicators towards hard outcomes, such as evidence of behavioural change secured from third parties.

Entrants should note that initiatives can relate to programmes at any stage of the product life cycle with stakeholders. Judges will want to see how all activity is linked back to the brand or product. Joint entries from agencies who have worked together on the campaign are welcomed.

Implementation – 15 marks (400 words)

  • Be clear on the data that was used to build the insights for the work
  • Describe how you chose the channels and outline how you selected specific tactics that were aligned to your strategy
  • Please describe how you implemented the project or programme

Judges’ top tips

  • The judges need to know what you did or developed to judge this section – please keep descriptions clear and succinct, and tell an engaging story about your campaign and its impact.
  • When awarding marks in this section the judges will reward:
    • the use of insights in finding creative ways to engage the defined audiences.
    • clever selection and maximisation of channels
    • a logical selection of tactical projects or outputs
    • creativity and innovation in the way you execute the tactics
    • scientific acumen and robustness
    • Tangible outcomes, which demonstrate engagement with content as well as impacting on commercial or campaign objectives
    • Where possible, include benchmarking data to better illustrate the impact of your results/KPIs

JUDGING CRITERIA AND ENTRY FORMAT

Executive Summary – 200 words. 0 (zero) marks

This will be used if your entry is selected as a finalist. Please state clearly why this event is award-worthy – what is unique, differentiating and innovative about it.

Main entry

Budget Band* Information, as below:

Band A under £10,000

Band B £10,001-£25,000

Band C £25,001-£50,000

Band D £50,001-£100,000

Band E £100,001-£200,000

Band F over £200,001.

*fee value of time spent

If your client has declined to allow this, you must state this within your submission.

  • Failure to provide the budget band seriously impacts the judge’s ability to assess the entry against other entries and may result in the entry being disqualified
  • The budget band provides important context for judging the innovation, delivery and impact of a piece of work.
  • Impressive work is not always dependent on budget size, so there is no right or wrong budget.

Situation Analysis, needs assessment and desired impact – 15 marks (300 words)

  • In this section you should show the judges how well you understood the situation at the start of the project, establishing a clear need for the initiative and the overall impact you intended to make
  • Use this section/analysis to clearly lay out benchmark data that you will refer to in your measurement of effectiveness later
  • Show the judges the best information, data and insights you have about uptake of health interventions, current practice, defining/segmenting audiences, identifying educational or information needs, which channels will best reach the audience, competitive environment, creative landscape etc before the start of your work.

Judges’ top tip

  • We work and operate in a world where there is a wealth of data and insights, so there is no excuse for projects and programmes that are planned without this data. The judges will reward the strength, robustness and variety of data and insights used to help to shape a holistic view of the situation and audiences.

Objectives – 15 marks (250 words)

Describe the objectives for the project or programme including outputs (i.e., what materials/platforms are produced), out-takes (i.e., post-event evaluation, surveys showing changes in knowledge/understanding, social media/website engagement, sharing and commenting), and outcomes (i.e., changes in patient behaviour or outcomes, clinical practice or health policy versus the benchmark stated in the situation analysis) and specifically how these will be measured

Strategy – 15 marks (250 words)

  • Please outline the rationale behind the specific approach undertaken
  • Refer to the data and insight in the situation analysis section
  • Share any strategic considerations that were given to ensure optimal inclusivity, representation and sustainability in this initiative
  • Explain why this was the right strategy and any points to emphasise bold or innovative strategy selection.

Judges’ top tips

The judges will:

  • Reward clarity of thought around strategies and how they are communicated – bullet points may be better than long prose
  • Assess how well the chosen strategy/ strategies might achieve objectives
  • Reward entries showing a clever or insightful way that you interpreted the data and insights from the situation analysis to set your strategy
  • Reward innovation in strategy
  • Recognise how different communications disciplines are blended as part of the strategic approach.

Implementation – 15 marks (400 words)

Please refer to the specific category for a description of what the judges are looking for.

Effectiveness Part One: Outputs and Outtakes vs Objectives – 10 marks (200 words)

  • To help the judges assess the strength of the evaluation, please describe how successful the project or programme was in terms of outputs and outtakes achieved versus the relevant measurements set in the Objectives section
  • You may include comments from third-party stakeholders in this section but ONLY if they clearly help to demonstrate the impact of the work and were a pre-planned part of your measurement approach

Effectiveness Part Two: Outcomes vs Objectives – 10 marks (200 words)

  • To help the judges assess the strength of the evaluation, please describe how successful the project or programme was in terms of the outcomes achieved versus the relevant measurements set in the Objectives section
  • You may include comments from third-party stakeholders in this section but ONLY if they clearly help to demonstrate the impact of the work and were a pre-planned part of your measurement approach.

Supporting Materials

Please only send information that helps the judges to see how you researched, planned, implemented and measured the programme within each specific category, e.g.:

  • Information illustrating how the strategy was brought to life is helpful but we don’t need a copy of every item
  • Information supporting the evaluation and measurement is the most relevant
  • ESSENTIAL: a summary sheet must be supplied detailing each piece of supporting material and clearly identifying where evidence can be found to support claims in the entry
  • PLUS: An approved visual image or video that supports the entry for use in print, results pages online and in the AV.

Don’t forget:

Please disclose if any other companies and/or organisations were involved in delivering this submission (research, creative, logistics, production, etc.). This will be a requirement when you submit your entry.

Timeframe eligibility

Work conducted during the two-year period between January 2023 and December 2024 will be eligible for submission. If the project, programme, or event was previously entered into the Communiqué Awards programme, any new entries must provide benchmark data to clearly demonstrate how effectiveness was evaluated and how it has developed over time between the two submissions. Submissions that fail to disclose this will be excluded from the judging process.