Background
Dimbleby Cancer Care (DCC) was launched in October 2005 by the Richard Dimbleby Cancer Fund to provide a £1 million fund to finance research projects designed to find new and better ways of delivering better cancer care.
JBP was appointed to raise awareness of the Dimbleby Cancer Care charity amongst the healthcare sector and to attract applications for funding for research projects.
Strategic approach
- For stakeholders to clearly understand what the charity was setting out to achieve, it was recognised that there was a need to set DCC apart from other cancer charities by focusing on the provision of cancer care, rather than clinical support.
- Promote Jonathan and David Dimbleby’s work in cancer care fundraising since the establishment of Richard Dimbleby’s cancer Fund.
- Establishment of regional spokespeople, using members of the DCC advisory committee.
- A two phased media relations programme:
- generating news on DCC on the charity’s launch day.
- setting up one-to-one interviews with Jonathan Dimbleby after the launch.
- Research statistics to support the need for a charity, which focused on the provision of cancer care
Tactics
- Press pack and press conference media invite issued to key media targets, including the national, regional and healthcare media
- Regional cancer statistics produced for each region of the UK to make the story appealing to regional media
- National TV and radio stations were approached to interview the Dimbleby brothers who rarely featured together on TV
- One-to-one ‘exclusive’ interviews set up between regional daily newspapers and Jonathan Dimbleby
Results
The launch of Dimbleby Cancer Care generated significant media coverage in:
- The national media, including BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 Live and GMTV (including the programme’s website)
- Regional press including Bristol Evening Post, Bath Chronicle, Western Mail Birmingham Evening Mail, Newcastle Chronicle, Scotsman.com
- Coverage in key cancer care publication, Cancer Nursing Practice
- The charity received 40 applications for research grants, which exceeded expectations, and these have now been awarded.
