*** Update: Following this post, we were named as Gold winners in the Healthcare Campaign category at the CIPR Midlands PRide awards 2022: read more here. ***
There’s not long to go now until this year’s CIPR PRide Awards – so we wanted to share more detail with you about one of our shortlisted PR campaigns.
We’ve been shortlisted in the Healthcare Campaign category for our PR campaign with Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists (AMVS) about a canine disease called cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV), also known as Alabama Rot.
Alabama Rot was originally identified in the late 1980s and was first detected in dogs in the UK in 2012. It affects the kidneys and skin, and sadly it has a very high mortality rate of 90 per cent.
David Walker, a specialist in small animal internal medicine, leads the Anderson Moores team and is an expert in Alabama Rot. AMVS has been leading research into Alabama Rot in the UK since 2012 and collates information on all confirmed cases nationwide.
Campaign brief
As specialists in B2C and B2B veterinary PR, we created a campaign which focused on:
- Raising awareness of Alabama Rot among dog owners
- Launching and promoting AMVS’ new website dedicated to Alabama Rot, both to vets and dog owners
- Positioning AMVS and David Walker as the UK’s foremost authority on this disease
Campaign activity included case studies with owners whose dogs had sadly passed away because of Alabama Rot.
Proactive activity included guidance from David Walker about the tell-tale signs of the disease and advice for dog owners.
Campaign results
The PR campaign received extensive coverage across B2C and B2B media. We handled numerous media requests to speak to David Walker about the disease, and he spoke about Alabama Rot on the Vet Times podcast.
Campaign activity generated backlinks from relevant, quality domains to the new Alabama Rot website and the AMVS website, supporting SEO for both websites.
And, crucially, the campaign helped to propel Alabama Rot into the news and to the attention of dog owners all over the UK.
As well as the coverage achieved, we shared advice and updates on occurrences of the disease via organic social content on the AMVS Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
Whatever the outcome is at the CIPR Midlands PRide awards on October 13th, we’re proud of the work we have done to help AMVS and David to raise awareness of Alabama Rot.
