11 December 2009
MMG wins award with SHO-me the way to safer sex
Southampton based Merchant Marketing Group (MMG)
won the Chartered Institute of PR Wessex and Channel Islands Gold
PRide Award 2009 for the Best Website or Microsite.
http://www.sho-me.nhs.uk/ or SHO-me
(Sexual Health Online in North East London) is a highly creative
site tasked with improving and protecting the sexual health of many
different demographics, cultures and ethnic groups within the North
East London Sexual Health and HIV Network.
Their client is The North East London HIV and Sexual Health
Network, a joint initiative of adult HIV and sexual health service
providers and commissioners in North East London which covers seven
primary care trusts and five hospitals.
The challenge for MMG was to deliver an effective awareness
raising website by creating an engaging identity and a compelling
call to action that would encourage the local community to actively
seek the information needed to drive behavioural change.
Essentially the site had to include clear information about sexual
health, the sexual health risks of certain lifestyle choices, and
the sexual health services available in the area.
With this in mind, MMG devised a strategy that tackled the
following:
Making sexual health information work smarter and harder by:
- Creating a new more personable brand identity;
- Creating a new interactive website;
- Devising and delivering a search engine optimisation strategy;
and
- Creating new, compelling branded promotional materials.
Raising awareness and interest through:
- Publicity campaign to launch the new website
Merchant developed, designed, built and populated the site. The
structure is simple to navigate and the information is presented
simply and sensitively. The site was developed on an Immediacy CMS
and integrated Google open source technology. It includes:
· A to Z
glossary of sexual health terms
· Sexual health
quiz to test the user's knowledge and expel any sexual health
myths
· Ability to
search local services by type and locality
· Advice on
contraception and the opportunity to directly compare different
forms of contraception
· A facility to
directly email a doctor confidentially with any sexual health
question
There is also an 'EXIT' button that allows the user to quickly
leave the website to avoid potential embarrassment.
Ben Sturt, director of the digital division of MMG stated: "The
results have exceeded all expectations. The campaign launched
at the end of November 2008 and the website had over 6,000 unique
visitors in the first six weeks with a high level of enquiry forms
being submitted to the network's Sexual Health Consultant."
The roadshow team recorded in the region of 5,200 interactions
with members of the public within the same time scale, with 3,285
of these benefiting from either free sexual health checks or
contraception.
The campaign also resulted in nine percent uplift in sexual
health screenings in the London Borough of Hackney. It was a highly
successful and cost effective campaign, which achieved its
objectives and was well received by the local community.
Dr Jose Figueroa, Deputy Director of Public Health said: "SHO-me
has been a great success. Sexual health is often perceived as a
taboo, if not embarrassing subject for some people so we needed to
develop an interactive resource for the local community to access
information quickly and simply. Merchant Marketing Group
really captured the essence of what we were trying to achieve and
the campaign has raised our awareness, and motivated people to get
tested for STIs not just in our local area, but other surrounding
areas.