SAY took home the Agility, Flexibility and Transformation Award at the prestigious Communiqué Awards on 4 July 2024, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, which celebrate excellence in healthcare communications. Say Communications are thrilled to have been recognised once again for the communications support we provide for The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) annual awareness week – OT Week.
While our corporate and digital comms work for this professional membership organisation for occupational therapists (OTs) received Communique Awards previously, for 2023’s OT Week we are delighted to have been recognised for our comms agility when responding to an unexpected issue.
OT Week, which takes place at the beginning of November, is RCOT’s biggest comms event of the year. 2023’s campaign, Occupation Matters, was conceived to increase awareness and understanding of the word occupation in the context of OT.
However, with just a month to go, Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza, and concerns were raised about whether the campaign’s title was appropriate given the meaning of ‘occupation’ in its geo-political sense. By cancelling OT Week or diluting the campaign RCOT would miss this annual opportunity to raise awareness and understanding of OT.
It was imperative to quickly address perceived concerns and change course while maintaining the objectives set at the outset. While most members wanted OT Week to go ahead, we needed to be sensitive to the range of feelings amongst them. We recognised that context is key and that we needed to provide some additional narrative around the campaign.
When you are navigating a potentially difficult situation, strong client relationships and trust are vital, and we are proud of how we worked hand-in-hand with RCOT’s comms team to ensure the campaign could still go ahead but with some adjustments to ensure that it put occupation in the context of occupational therapy.
Amended OT Week materials were delivered in just four days, and on 7 November we were able to launch a successful campaign that reached its objectives while still being sensitive to the situation in Gaza and Israel.
Joint Managing Director of SAY Stefi Rucci said:
“We are delighted to have been recognised for delivering a successful campaign despite the need to respond quickly to a potentially difficult situation. It’s good to be known for our agility as well as our campaign creation skills! We feel incredibly proud of how we pulled together and worked seamlessly with our client to ensure such an important awareness week could still go ahead on time.”
Stefi Rucci
The judges commented on what was achieved through a video message shown at the ceremony:
“Say Communications work for the Royal College of Occupational Therapists made a real impact on us. They faced multiple challenges and were able to transform their approach very, very quickly and with great effect. We were impressed by their clear and effective strategy which delivered some outstanding results. They clearly demonstrated to us, and it has to be said with real purpose and passion, their ability to adapt and respond in a very short space of time. Many congratulations Say Communications, you are worthy winners.”
Communiqué judge
Find out more here about SAY’s healthcare campaigns that deliver what matters most.
