Evergreen PR, has been re-commissioned by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to support its Veteran Friendly Accreditation programme.
The decision comes after the agency’s previous campaign led to a 645 per cent increase in the number of practices signing up to the programme.
The Veteran Friendly GP Practices programme equips GP staff to identify, understand, support and refer veteran patients for best health outcomes. The RCGP’s programme is recognised in the Government’s Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan as an important lever in the goal of making the UK ‘the best place in the world to be a veteran’.
An evaluation by the University of Chester revealed that the programme leads to better healthcare treatment for veterans and that 99 per cent of GP practices that are accredited would recommend it.
The success of the previous activity was achieved after the agency used its insight-driven MERTO Framework to identify the ‘most effective route to outcomes,’ with strategic priority levers including:
- Broadening the focus from GPs to the wider practice workforce – based on insight showing that GPs represent only 26 per cent of all practice staff
- Education for healthcare professionals on the unique health needs of veterans
- Creative campaign imagery that brought to life the challenges of moving from military to civilian life
The integrated campaign drove a 645 per cent increase in accreditations compared to the baseline from before Evergreen was commissioned. Web traffic to the programme’s landing page more than doubled against baseline and there was a six-fold improvement in conversions due to the combination of better quality traffic and improvements in Conversion Rate Optimisation. The Department of Health and Social Care is among those to have praised the surge in growth.
Evergreen PR has the purpose of transforming health by delivering tangible outcomes. Clients span NHS organisations, health charities, health technology companies and market-leading private healthcare firms and include Quorn, the Personalised Care Institute and Ascenti.
Evergreen PR MD, Leigh Greenwood, said: “This was a really rewarding campaign that delivered tangible outcomes. As most GP practices see a veteran patient every day, over the next 12 months, tens of thousands more veteran patients will now get access to support that has been found to be effective, thanks to these accreditations.
“Our MERTO Framework, which we will soon be launching as a standalone service after 12 months of honing it with clients, helped us to unlock the priority strategic levers that delivered the outcome. We’re delighted to have already been able to make a difference – but we’re even more excited about what is to come.”
Andy Riley, head of programmes and projects at the Royal College of GPs, said: “Evergreen have proven time and again that they deliver tangible impact for us through their campaign and comms work. The team carry a high spread of knowledge, are all experts in their field and their MERTO Framework has delivered upticks in engagement and organisational outcomes before. We’re delighted to be working with them again.”
