By Nina Bhagwat, Group DEI Director  

Today we are launching our most comprehensive London DEI Plan ever. It’s a reflection on what we have achieved, what we have heard, what we have learnt, as well as what we will focus on for the future.  

We hope you will recognise this as a transparent outline of our progress and a way to hold ourselves accountable, not a corporate show and tell. Because while sharing this is vital to create change, our approach to DEI is far more focussed on our people and how we bring many hearts, hands and minds together to create a more inclusive culture internally. 

READ THE PLAN HERE

The road to creating this plan has been an act of inclusion in itself and we’ve learnt a lot about ourselves along the way – from forming our inclusion ambition and behaviours in all staff sessions, to focus groups and steering groups on the content to actually creating the copy and design.  

This is also for the first time we’ve reported our data. We are reporting our inclusion statistics from our annual BELONG survey and our representation data from our newly-implemented Self ID, voluntary DEI system. 

We are committed creating a diverse and inclusive culture and know a huge part of this is sharing data on representation and inclusion. Our BELONG inclusion data shows promising progress, but while we don’t have the full Self ID data picture yet, we have transparently outlined our progress in the Plan. We will be reporting this data annually for accountability and once we have a more complete data set we fully commit to reporting annually on Pay Gaps. 

Maybe not quiet, but humour can transform the power of consumer health communications.

Natasha Weeks, Executive Director and Consumer Health lead at Virgo Health and Golin, reflects on this year’s Cannes Lions.

People don’t sit up and listen to healthcare messages when they are preachy, scary or boring. So why do we continue to produce healthcare campaigns that are scaremongering, finger-pointing and overloaded with statistical data. Focusing too heavily on the problem can cause the very people we are trying to reach to put their fingers in their ears and ignore us.

Effective communication comes in many forms but reflecting on my experience at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity – we should harness the power of humour to drive behaviour change.

Humour was a big theme at Cannes 2024. There were 13 new humour sub-categories, including PR. It featured in many panels, including the ‘Ready Laugh Again: The Return of Comedy’ session with comedian Kenan Thompson of Saturday Night Live. “Humour is all about connection,” he said. “Humour cuts through the noise. We live in a state of constant assault on our senses, but if something is funny, you’ll seek it out. It doesn’t mean you have to shy away from tough stuff, humour is one of the best ways to deal with rough things going on in the world.”

Health is no different. While leaning into levity as a healthcare brand is not always easy, when done right there is nothing to touch it. Our Specsavers audiology campaign, The Misheard Version, started a conversation about hearing loss that has been shied away from for years. And it was all down to the shared laugh over Rick Astley’s misheard lyrics. It’s difficult to do justice to it here without the backing instrumentals but “Your Aunt’s been naked” and “You wouldn’t catch nits from any other guy” did make people sit up and listen.

People avoid hearing tests because to many, it symbolises the beginning of the end – old age – and there is stigma around hearing aids. But the impact of hearing loss can be huge – from leaving employment early to loneliness. Hearing tests are also important because they can detect the early signs of chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or diabetes.

Hearing loss isn’t funny, but our key insight that hearing loss is isolating and mishearing connects led us to a humourous idea that brought people together. Humour disrupts, connects, doesn’t judge and ultimately cuts through when serious messages don’t.

We weren’t laughing at people – we were all part of the joke – even our target audience’s kids were in on it. In using humour, we made hearing loss less heavy and created a simple reminder that we need to get our hearing checked.

And it worked. By shifting the conversation around hearing loss with a humorous, engaging campaign we were able to increase hearing tests by 66%.

Jury President Kat Thomas, on awarding the Grand Prix to The Misheard Version for Specsavers, said: “Healthcare is not a sexy category, and it was a very challenging brief, but they leant into humour in an all-in way to really tackle the stigma.”

Consumer health campaigns fundamentally need to engage audiences to prompt behaviour change, and humour is a powerful tool to do this. I look forward to seeing more healthcare campaigns utilise the power of humour – and take the stage at next year’s Cannes Lions.

We are so proud to announce that our ground-breaking work for Specsavers has won six awards at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, including two highly prestigious Grand Prix. The creative campaign, which we worked on alongside our sister agency, Golin, also won a Gold Lion and three Silver Lions across the Audio & Radio Lions, PR Lions and Health & Wellness Lions.

In fact, the Grand Prix in the PR Lions made history for Golin and Virgo, as we became the first-ever PR agency to win PR Lions Grand Prix awarded for our creative idea.

In a bold move to address hearing loss, we transformed one of the most famously misheard songs into an unavoidable nationwide hearing test. Partnering with singer Rick Astley, we re-recorded his 80’s smash hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” with intentionally incorrect lyrics. Within eight hours, over 20 million people played the new “misheard” version, doubling online searches related to hearing loss and propelling it to a nationally trending topic in the UK on Google. Specsavers exceeded its hearing test booking target by an unprecedented 1220%.

WATCH THE CASE FILM HERE

Cannes Lions Audio & Radio jury president and chief creative officer at Colenso BBDO, New Zealand, Simon Vicars, shared the jury’s verdict, saying: “The Misheard Version by Specsavers is a brilliant example of creativity turned up to 11. A nationwide hearing test, disguised inside an iconic song. Creative to its core and recklessly ambitious in its execution. It powered business results and broke into culture. Thank you, Specsavers for making us laugh, for committing properly to this idea and for making our jury’s biggest decision an easy one.”

Al Wood, chief creative officer at Golin London, reveled at the work’s impact: “An incredible result. This was an earned-first idea that started in laughter, but ended up changing how Brits hear. It owes its success to so many people – and it means the world to see that collective work recognised and celebrated on such a global stage.”

This MedComms day 2024 we asked Nicole Scullion, Senior Medical Writer here at Virgo Health to tell us about her journey into the world of Medical Communications and what a typical day might look like.  

Describe your role to a friend… 

Medical writing involves working with pharmaceutical companies to help educate doctors, patients and the public on their products in a number of different ways. For example, through the creation of educational materials or at events such as congresses. While you are often sitting at a desk researching or developing content, you also have the opportunity to travel.  

What area of MedComms do you work in? 

In my current role I cover three therapy areas: surgical imaging, immunosuppression post-organ transplantation and oncology (neuroendocrine cancer). At Virgo, I have also had the opportunity to explore additional areas such as women’s health and nephrology. Within these therapy areas, my work spans various medical education projects, including advisory boards, symposia and the development of educational materials such as core decks, publication summaries and infographics.  

A typical day at work? 

My daily routine varies based on client needs and upcoming events. As a mostly remote worker, I connect with internal teams, have client calls and create or edit materials from home. Currently, I am focusing on finalising content for a symposium taking place in the Netherlands this week.  

When I visit the office, this provides an opportunity to attend training, brainstorms and team meetings in person. It also gives me the chance to catch up with team members that I may not interact with daily. 

What 3 skills are most important to your role: 

• Attention to detail 

• Communicating confidently with your team and with clients 

• Being able to interpret data in a creative way 

How would you describe MedComms? 

MedComms is a very dynamic and varied industry which serves as the link between the scientific community, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare professionals, patients and the wider public. While translating complex scientific information, MedComms allows for creativity, collaboration and strategic thinking. 

How did you land on a med comms career? 

I attended the University of Liverpool to study a BSc (Hons) degree in Biological Sciences, followed by an MRes degree in Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine, with a focus on oncology and uveal melanoma. After completing my master’s degree in 2019, I discovered medical writing while searching ‘jobs for biology graduates’. My journey began over four years ago as a Trainee Medical Writer, soon progressing to Associate Medical Writer, Medical Writer and joining Virgo in August 2023 as Senior Medical Writer. 

What advice would you give people interested in MedComms careers? 

For anyone starting a career in MedComms, I would recommend networking and connecting with professionals already working in MedComms to seek advice and learn about their experiences. LinkedIn is a great tool for this as you can connect with so many people in the industry (including recruiters) and find out about MedComms specific events.  

I would also advise preparing as much as you can for the application process as this typically involves a few interview rounds in addition to a writing test.  

My final piece of advice is that starting a new career can be challenging, so give yourself grace during this time. It may be daunting at first and it may not ‘click’ immediately, but as you settle in, you will find your rhythm and purpose.   

Lastly, tell us something surprising about yourself! 

I am not an outdoorsy person at all, however, I forced myself to climb Mount Kilimanjaro!