Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer (TYAC) – Media Relations, Social, Email…
12th April 2017
Background
Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer (TYAC) is the UK’s only membership body for healthcare professionals who work with young people with cancer. From dieticians, psychologists and therapists to nurses and doctors, TYAC provides a unified voice and platform for these professionals to share expertise, knowledge and best practice, all with the ultimate goal of providing the best care and saving as many young lives from cancer as possible.
TYAC’s main aim is to educate its members, the wider healthcare community and the general public that teenagers and young adults are different to children or adults and in turn, have specific needs when it comes to cancer care. Factors such as future fertility, education, friends, relationships and self-esteem all have to be considered when communicating with and treating a young cancer patient.
PR Objectives
Eden were appointed by TYAC to manage its press and media relations, social media, blog and member newsletter. The initial objectives were very clear; help to grow TYAC’s membership by reaching health professionals through these channels.
Over time, the aims have evolved. Eden’s work to promote the charity to potential new members had caught the eye of the medical community, general public and journalists, who have been more than keen to hear the expert opinions and comments from the charity’s members and trustees. Quality over quantity has become key to fulfilling this important objective; to position TYAC as the country’s leading professional voice for young people with cancer and help it to become the go-to source of expertise on the subject.
When CCLG was introduced into the campaign in January 2018, the objectives once again grew to incorporate the additional charity into press and media relations work. Eden work separately with CCLG to promote the charity’s research, fundraising and expertise, as the leading membership organisation for paediatric cancer professionals. The two campaigns run alongside one another and occasionally cross over, dependent on the story or news agenda.
Strategy and Plan
For the campaigns to achieve the best results, Eden are one step ‘ahead of the game’ when it has come to cancer research, policy change and awareness raising in the UK. TYAC and CCLG spokespeople are on hand to provide their expert comments on news stories as they break, for both national news, medical trade and charity publications.
Key themes and issues, specific to teenage and childhood cancer are regularly explored through a monthly blog programme and new opportunities are constantly researched, paired with news stories about internal TYAC/CCLG developments such as anniversaries, rebrands and events.
Eden manages TYAC’s Social media, which shares this internal news but also engages with other cancer organisations and research programmes on a regular basis, to position the account as the ‘go-to’ place to find the latest information. Twitter is also used to showcase TYAC’s expertise to national and trade journalists.
Eden also curates research, jobs and news for TYAC members in its bi-weekly newsletter, designed to keep them engaged with the organisation and its work. The newsletter also encourages members to contribute by submitting their own projects for TYAC to share.
Results
Eden has transformed the communications strategy of both TYAC and CCLG – which had no formal press relations work in place previously. Results have reflected this, with coverage in numerous influential trade magazines, regional and national newspapers and even radio broadcast.
Eden’s press relations work for TYAC has reached over 10 million people since summer 2016 and has seen 20 pieces of coverage since January 2018 for CCLG.
TYAC’s twitter followers have reached almost 1,000 in just over 18 months and engagement levels are excellent – achieving almost half a million impressions since July 2016.
Eden work surrounding TYAC’s annual conference in 2017 saw press interest from national newspapers and broadcasters such as The Daily Mail, The Press Association and Global Radio. Social media engagement sky-rocketed before and during the event, achieving TYAC’s highest ever engagement rate, a 5% increase in followers and over 130 tweets using the dedicated conference hashtag, engaging delegates, TYAC members and other organisations.