Earlier this year, we embarked on a multi-channel campaign to raise awareness of the link between the health of people and the health of the planet, and advocate for collaboration and innovation to help tackle the climate crisis.

Through a combination of storytelling, partnerships, influencers and an immersive, sustainable event attended by nearly 500 people including investors, business leaders, and media, sustainability innovators and their brilliant ideas were given a global platform that helped them reach 1.7 billion people.

We received over 1,000 applications from start-ups and entrepreneurs for our innovation progamme eco-Disruptive, many of which could help our business and also other businesses tackle climate challenges .

We decided to take this internal initiative and launch an external, multi-channel campaign that would showcase and celebrate pioneering start-ups and their sustainability products, services and technologies .

Objectives:

• Raise awareness of the link between people and planet health, using content, influencers and storytelling to create talkability.

• Provide a global platform for the start-ups that participated in the 2022 eco-Disruptive programme

• Inspire greater collaboration on sustainability across corporate partners, business leaders and investors

• Create a one-day celebration of human ingenuity, collaboration and sustainability innovation showcasing breakthrough start-up solutions focused on the healthcare sector's sustainability

With the underlying intention of the our eco-Disruptive programme being to ‘disrupt business as usual’ for the benefit of the planet, the strategy was to disrupt the usual innovation and technology “expo experience” and create something different.

On arrival, guests were taken through an immersive experience called ‘Boundless’, a space which celebrated sustainable innovation without limits. It was designed as an 8 x 8m area with stereo sound and 4K visuals projected on all sides, with bold messaging and imagery.

We wanted visitors to stop and think about the exciting potential for innovation and collaboration to address the healthcare sector's sustainability challenges. Guests were then presented with three doorways leading to start-ups that aligned with one of our sustainability focus areas.

We also put the health of the planet at the heart of the event production - from repurposed wood, reusable screws, lanyards made from plantable seed paper and more.

Target audience: Entrepreneurs, start-ups, Bupa employees, business leaders, investors, sustainability partners, healthcare partners, and media

Integration: Combining credible adovacates and influencers in the sustainability space, social channels and reach, and media engagement.

We worked with credible speakers with a significant social presence that could help raise awareness the interlink between climate and health across global audiences - e.g TV personality and entrepreneur Deborah Meaden amplified the event to 700,000+ Twitter followers and climate storytellers and influencers Jack Harries and Alice Aedy shared content with their millions of followers

The priority was raising the profile of start-ups in target media and leveraging our leaders to advocate for their solutions and ambition. We identified tier one media targets (BBC, Sky News, Forbes) which supported our objective of achieving global reach, and also specialist sustainability and start-up press.

We captured content at the event for use months afterwards on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Implementation: The event production and external communications campaign ran hand in hand. We established early engagement with speakers and start-ups that would feature on the day and as part of content and media plans throughout the campaign, worked with sustainable suppliers, and navigated a timeline that prioritised the experience of colleagues, guests and the start-ups.

Timeline: Approx 6 months of planning and execution

Placement: Live event in London with global attendees, media coverage across big global outlets including BBC News, Sky, Forbes, Reuters, social engagement across our Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, and social channels of key influencers.

Scale: Approximately 500 people attended the event, 18 global start-ups were showcased, over 20 brilliant speakers and experts joined panels and in-depth discussions. The global reach of media was over 1 billion and the global reach for social was over 1 million on the day.

The campaign garnered over 25 pieces of positive media coverage amounting to a global reach of 1.4 billion, with key pieces appearing on Sky News, BBC News, Reuters and Forbes.

With high talkability also being an objective, influencer social posts on the day had a combined reach of 1.5 million.

The event was attended by 500 attendees - entrepreneurs, start-ups, Bupa employees, business leaders, investors, sustainability partners, and media.

A post-event survey showed that 94% of those who attended rated the event as excellent or very good. Of those, 89% would recommend the event to a friend or colleague, resulting in an NPS score of 74.

Having succeeded in putting together an engaging campaign and event experience, we didn’t want to end the conversation there. So we filmed a series of interviews, start-up profiles and other content at the event to help keep people talking about sustainability, healthcare and innovation.