Campaign: Voluntary sector - Extraordinary show raises charity funds

Campaign: The boy who can never grow old
Client: Treloar Trust (Treloar's)
PR Team: Surrey House Corporate Communications
Timescale: 12 months (concept to broadcast)
Budget: Part of an annual retainer of c.£40,000

Treloar's is a registered charity that maintains a college for severely physically disabled young people from the UK and overseas, providing full board and around-the-clock medical care.

OBJECTIVES

- To increase public awareness of Treloar's Trust and affiliated school

- To drive continued support and increase pupil enrolment.

STRATEGY AND PLAN

Surrey House advised Treloar's to raise public awareness through a TV documentary. So a group of seven boys with the muscle-wasting condition Duchene Muscular Dystrophy volunteered to be filmed for an hour-long documentary for the Channel Five series Extraordinary People.

Surrey House and Five's press office ran a media campaign a month before airing.

MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION

Before the broadcast, there were pieces in The Observer and Daily Mail, and articles in medical, charity and disability press.

Treloar's publicity continued, including a report by Radio 4's You and Yours.

RESULTS

More than one million viewers tuned into the documentary and Granada is now planning to make a second one.

Treloar has now launched a successful appeal for additional funding.