Company: Next9 Communications, Budapest, Hungary
Company Description: Next9 is a communication, PR, content and branding agency, a think-tank. It is a creative hub, where ideas are born to change consumer, partner, employer and employee habits, taking into account the challenges of the 21st century.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Community Relations
 Nomination Title: Nestlé Health Science - The fabled life of Piku
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
1st January 2021
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated campaign or program, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
Have you heard about Phenylketonuria? It’s a rare inherited disorder, abbreviated as PKU. For the rest of their lives, people with PKU — babies, children and adults - have to maintain a very strict low-protein diet to keep their health in control. They must follow strict dietary rules, creating major challenges for not only the patient, but the entire family and community (nursery, elementary and high school, workplace) as well. In Hungary, there are around 400 families struggling with PKU, with many children among them, and only 2 dietitians (from 2000) and 2 health centers specializing with this disease. Nestlé Science is one of the key players to deliver dieting solutions to these children.
The assignment: (1) In Hungary, there’s a very strict regulation regarding health communication. Our task was to position Nestlé Science as a “professional and trusted advisor” towards health professionals and families with PKU, without any sales pressure. Furthermore, (2) help families and reduce their burdens, (3) build a community (involve at least 30% of concerned families, 135), (4) help dietitians spread their knowledge and share their expertise.
Insight: Parents of children with PKU report significant burdens and challenges, including time constraints, stress,restrictions on social life, along with emotional, mental and interpersonal stress. In particular, there are stressors relating to dietary provisions, a threat of metabolic crisis, coping with uncertainty, managing life transitions and struggling for improvement in care. In many cases communication focuses on parents who are struggling trying to do everything for their children.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 242 words used.
Strategic approach: providing a solution not only for parents but for children, too. Provide some peace, joy and fun, plus position Nestlé Science as a trusted and professional advisor. So we developed a special educational campaign with a unique lovable „mascot”.
Why mascot? For most children, the first relationship they develop outside of their family is with a special stuffed animal as they provide comfort, companionship, and agreeable partnership in crime. Children practice all sorts of skills with their stuffed animals. They learn from them, talk to them, and take care of them, and in so doing, rehearse everything they have learned through observation. So based on these facts, we created a superhero, Piku: a stuffed bear, whose name naturally comes from the abbreviation of phenylketonuria.
The idea: let’s write children’s tales that offer everyday situations on how to navigate dietary restrictions in kindergarten, at birthday parties and how to turn around negative feelings of being different from „normal” people. Every tale has a hero, ours hiere was PIKU, the stuffed bear.
And our ultimate aim: We have created a series of children stories for the families living with Phenylketonuria (PKU), to let children know they are special, instead of ill or weird, as they have to follow a very strict diet. We have shown through a number of situations how their anxiety or embarrasement about being different can be turned around and prove they are just as lovely as their contemporaries.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2019. Even if your initiative started before 2020, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2020 only (up to 250 words):
We created the Piku stories, building on the insights of parents and dietitians. The writer of the stories was a well-known children’s book author. The stories were shared on Morzsacsaták non-branded FB page, center of our storytelling (gifs, animations, downloads, pictures).
We had a surprising success from the beginning! Families kept asking us to create new stories with Piku, which we did, and also created a real stuffed Piku bear. And the families wanted more! So, we created coloring pages and games, organized events - but COVID-19 turned the world upside down.
We continued our events online as a family TV show: a live feed, where a dietitian cooked and the moderator joined in from her living room, like the participants. We sent the ingredients to the families and cooked PKU meals together. We also created a quiz for our FB page and awarded the best players.
We published 2 PKU books: one includes Piku tales for each month of the year, while the other one is a unique cookbook.
Results: Great response and demand for 12 Piku stories, stuffed mascot bear. Books: demand was so high, we had to reprint them (500 pcs). Growing participation in our online events from several geographical areas (half of the families joined, 200). Nestlé is warmly welcomed in people’s homes. Memorable and continuous community for years to come. Patient organizations are really happy and committed: more open to work together and accept our professional support. FB page: 449 followers (4/5 of concerned parties).
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
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