Results
- Over 600 events around the world resulting in 3,200 pieces of global ‘Am I Number 12?’ / World Hepatitis Day coverage, reaching an estimated audience of over one billion people
- Support for World Hepatitis Day received from President Barack Obama, former US President Bill Clinton and London Mayor Boris Johnson
- Viral hepatitis added to the agenda of the World Health Assembly for the first time, with a resolution tabled by Brazil
- Online activities reached over 100,000 people
Challenge
Hepatitis B and C affects 500 million people globally – yet it is a forgotten, stigmatised disease, as low on the global agenda as HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. The World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) appointed Fleishman-Hillard in 2007 to gain support from patient groups, governments, health policy makers and key supra-national organisations to push viral hepatitis up the global health agenda. Now in its third year, the ultimate goal of the WHE is to work with governments to eradicate these diseases from the planet, through better awareness, prevention, care, support and access to treatment.
Solution
Fleishman-Hillard developed a five-year integrated public affairs and public relations campaign. Key to this was the ‘Am I Number 12?’ communications platform, emphasising that while one in 12 people worldwide is living with hepatitis B or C, awareness remains inexplicably low.
The first global World Hepatitis Day took place on 19 May 2008, and since then the campaign has been supported by a host of tools, websites, social media initiatives and competitions to encourage new and imaginative ways to get people talking about hepatitis B and C. Fleishman-Hillard also developed a global campaign to encourage government support for a WHO resolution on viral hepatitis, which would secure WHO backing for World Hepatitis Day and create pressure for global policy change.
