hanover celebrates SABRE award win

hanover has won the pan-European SABRE crisis and issues management award for their work for the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes. This work was also recognised as a Finalist in two categories at the CIPR Excellence Awards.

In February 2009, reality TV star Jade Goody announced that the cervical cancer she had been diagnosed with just six months prior was terminal. As the media and the public searched for answers, an intense and clinically unfounded campaign fronted by a national newspaper began to call for a reduction in the cervical screening age from 25 to 20 years.

hanover provided both strategic crisis communications counsel and hands-on press-office support for the Programme, boosting its share of voice, arguing convincingly for the maintenance of the 25 age limit, protecting its reputation, and capitalising on the opportunity to get its messaging across to a hard-to-reach group. Ultimately, the number of women taking up the offer for cervical screening increased by 12%.

The hanover team was also awarded a bronze commendation for the 2009 breast and cervical screening annual reviews in the editorial product category.

These entries were also finalists in the crisis communications and publications categories at the CIPR awards this year.

The SABRE awards are organised by the Holmes Report, is one of the world’s largest public relations competitions and its prizes are amongst the most sought after in the industry.