How the Stroke Association Secured 55,000 Petition Signatures with Cision
Discover how the Stroke Association used research, media measurement, and campaign insights to drive public engagement, increase awareness of stroke prevention, and influence government policy.
#NewEra impressions
signatures
petition link reach
Challenge
As many as 80% of all strokes are thought to be preventable, meaning the greatest hope for diminishing the condition lies with education and awareness. With this in mind, the Stroke Association needed a powerful way to inform mass audiences of the prevalence and risk of stroke – a campaign that would raise awareness and inspire healthy actions. In addition, the national stroke strategy for England was coming to an end and the government said it had no plans to renew it. It became imperative for the Stroke Association to develop a campaign that would also generate enough momentum to spur the government to re-evaluate and re-invest in the national stroke strategy. With these two important goals in mind, the Stroke Association couldn’t afford to have its PR programs go unmeasured. The charity needed to build its campaign based on tangible data and put in place a measurement system to ensure its effectiveness for the duration of the campaign.
Solution
Four months before launching its campaign, the Stroke Association turned to Cision to create and implement a research-based foundation against which the PR team could measure the impact of its activity. Cision’s analysis aided in optimizing the PR outreach mid-flight and measured awareness of stroke among the general public. Cision’s team of media intelligence experts provided human analysis and reporting backed by proprietary tools and leading content sources.
Results
Respondent awareness of the Stroke Association's key messages grew 35% compared to the initial survey, while the #NewEra hashtag generated seven million impressions. The petition link was shared almost 4,000 times, potentially reaching 3.7 million people. The Stroke Association secured over 55,000 signatures and received a government response – ultimately leading to two meetings with a Health Minister.
The Stroke Association is the U.K.’s leading stroke charity. There are more than 100,000 strokes happening in the U.K. each year and over a million people are living with the effects of a stroke.
Although stroke is the U.K.’s fourth biggest killer and a leading cause of disability, far too many people still don’t understand it or ever think it will happen to them.
The Stroke Association works to build awareness of stroke prevention and stroke warning signs, campaigns for better care, and support for the country’s 1.2 million stroke survivors, while raising funds for cutting-edge treatments.
Support setting PR goals and KPIs
Building a research-driven awareness campaign
“Our intent was to generate coverage in both national and regional press in order to maximize our reach. As the petition was online, it was also important to generate online content, including direct links to the petition.”
The campaign began on May 17, coinciding with the Stroke Association’s biggest fundraising initiative of the year: Make May Purple for Stroke. The end date was set for October 28, World Stroke Day.
The final month of the campaign represented a crucial push to secure the volume of signatures required to trigger a debate in Parliament – the ultimate campaign goal.
“We wanted the government to address unacceptable variations in stroke care and treatment in different areas of England, drive progress and create advances in treatment, and improve overall support and standards of treatment for people affected by stroke,” added Ranchod.
Strategic support to achieve PR goals
The first measurement survey, conducted shortly after campaign launch, indicated the petition had secured 5,000 signatures.
Cision’s initial report highlighted that while the PR and social output correlated to a massive spike in signatures, these spikes would need to be higher in order to meet the Stroke Association’s goal of securing time with the Health Minister.
Cision was able to show that although 48% of U.K. adults were reached by the New Era content and messaging, only 14% had been exposed to coverage featuring a link to the website to sign the petition.
Following this feedback, the Stroke Association adjusted its activity and managed to increase coverage featuring the website link, doubling its original results.
Further insights showed that the Stroke Association’s crucial New Era petition stories were battling for attention with the less specific Make May Purple fundraising stories. This was especially a problem within regional newspapers read by the charity’s target audience.
The same pattern emerged on social platforms: #MakeMayPurple achieved four times as much traction as #NewEra.
The initial insights report also highlighted the key fundraising influencers so the Stroke Association could re-approach them with #NewEra-only content.
“Having access to [Cision’s] in-depth analyses mid-way through the initiative allowed us to effectively pause, evaluate our work and make adjustment to our strategy accordingly.”
Buoyed by the introduction of case studies on social media and the subsequent seven million impressions made by the #NewEra hashtag, the petition link was shared almost 4,000 times, potentially reaching 3.7 million people.
From the end-of-campaign survey, Cision reported that respondents' awareness of the Stroke Association’s key messages grew 35% compared to the initial report.
Due to this strong growth, the charity’s PR team was able to demonstrate that the change in tactics had been key to achieving campaign goals.
The Stroke Association secured over 55,000 signatures and received a government response.
The petition led to a government committee saying to Health Ministers their response was not good enough and challenging them on the need for a new strategy. This led to two meetings with the Health Minister.
“I’m proud to say that we use measurement to guide our campaign activity for better audience engagement and to show the senior management team the real impact of our communications. We’re now seeing traction in what used to be one of our hardest goals – persuading the government to understand that stroke treatment and care is a priority.”
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