As the UK Government encourages workers back into the office, we want our people get back outside and get inspired, not just back into the building. So today we’re launching Go All Outside, a programme designed to do just that.

Every fortnight for the next six months, two people at Virgo Health and Golin will receive an extra two days off and an expenses-paid trip of their choice with a friend or partner. The only condition is to do something that inspires their curiosity.

“Go All Outside is about helping our people to connect with the world again and inspire their curiosity. We want to encourage the team to explore new places and those they’ve missed, meet new people and connect with old friends, be inspired and inspire others,” said Ondine Whittington, Golin and Virgo Health MD.

“Curiosity and creativity is vital in the PR industry, but lockdown undoubtedly impaired our ability to nurture curiosity. Go All Outside gives our team a chance to reenergise, but also critically to find inspiration in new places and people that will inspire creativity in our work for our clients.” Whittington added.

To receive the trip team members will nominate their colleagues who are going above and beyond in their work or in their teams, acts of kindness and support, and making the agency and our work better through teaching and inspiring others.

“Lockdown has given us the opportunity to reimagine how, when and where we work, Go All Outside is part of a whole new approach to how we thrive as a team to deliver the best work of our lives for our clients. As we begin the next phase of this journey, the goal is to ensure our people feel happy, refreshed and inspired about how we come back into the world as an agency,” said Rebecca Hall, Group HR Director.

We’re delighted to share the news that we’ve won a three-way, competitive pitch to support CooperVision with an IPG media agency and sister agency Golin. CooperVision is one of the largest manufacturers of contact lenses in the world and we’ll be working with them on a behaviour-change campaign to raise consumer awareness of myopia (short-sightedness) in children. By 2050, 50% of the global population will develop myopia, but it is manageable.

The three agencies worked as an integrated team to respond to CooperVision’s purpose-led brief, combining their expertise in consumer communications, healthcare and paid media to deliver a scalable, earned-first creative concept to drive awareness of myopia and increase enquiries about myopia management in the UK. The team also delivered an above the line brand identity and digital advertising plan for Brilliant Futures™ with MiSight^® 1 day contact lenses, which are proven to slow the progression of myopia.

Golin and Virgo Health will lead earned strategy, creative, consumer public relations and influencer engagement. Reprise will support across paid social channels, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Virgo Health will also work with eye care practitioners (ECPs) to raise awareness of the campaign and further increase discussions about myopia management.

Mark Draper, Director of Marketing and National Accounts at CooperVision, said: “CooperVision is committed to helping people around the world see better every day. Traditional vision correction can help children see clearly, but it can’t help to slow the progression of their myopia. That’s why we’re so proud of Brilliant Futures™ with MiSight^® 1 day and the impact it can have on improving children’s lives and helping them achieve their future ambitions. The IPG team completely understood our purpose and primary ambition to increase awareness of myopia resulting in a change in behaviour. They impressed us with a fantastic pitch and killer creative concept, coupled with a smart and well-considered approach to rolling out our campaign.”

Natasha Weeks, Executive Director and Consumer Health lead, Golin and Virgo Health, said: “The CooperVision brief is the kind that truly energised and excited our team. With our integrated offering it hit our sweet spot perfectly of hard-hitting health combined with culturally-relevant consumer creativity, and we loved unpicking the insights and triggers that will ensure parents take action. At a time when maintaining public health is so essential, the whole team is passionate about the difference we can make with CooperVision. Parents wouldn’t think twice about taking their children for regular dental check-ups, and with products like Brilliant Futures™ with MiSight® 1 day that can slow the progression of myopia, children’s eye tests should be just as much a priority.”

As we close out our Diversity and Inclusion learning fortnight, I have never been prouder of the people I work with. Beyond the 903 hours of collective learning we did together, most importantly we showed each other that we do care about the whole person, not just the role they play alongside us as colleagues. I have been overwhelmed by some beautiful acts of listening, thoughtfulness, inclusion and kindness our team has shown each other through the fortnight. It is by far one of my career highlights and I have learnt so much – some things that stood out for me:

• Knowing is not understanding. I went into this fortnight feeling fairly well educated but quickly realised there is a big difference between knowing something and really understanding it. I realise I have a way to go to really understanding many of the topics we covered and this is just the start
• The opportunity for my own self-reflection about my racial identity as part of sharing my experience in the panel discussion and how grateful I was to my colleagues who generously shared theirs
• Samantha Renke’s view that actually she wasn’t disabled but the world around her was disabling, really brought into focus the real degree to which society and quite frankly the constructs of the world around us all need to change to truly to be inclusive
• My responsibility to create an inclusive workplace starts outside the walls, it starts at home with my children. The work shared by Magda from Woke Babies is so vital.
• The inclusive leadership session brilliantly bought into focus the opportunity that the pandemic has given us to build back our workplace better than before and this means we need the lens of inclusivity to be cast over every aspect of our hybrid work planning
• The incredibly powerful role we have as communicators and for the global brands we work on to actually influence and change perspective and behaviour on a huge scale

Our goal is for diversity and inclusion to become simply part of “how we do things” at Golin and Virgo, from our culture, processes and our work.

There will be challenges as we turn the flashlight on ourselves and increase our accountability, but it will make us better, closer, stronger and help us produce even better work.

So, this is just the beginning.

We are delighted to announce the senior appointments of Amanda Moulson as Executive Director and Gregor Fyfe as Senior Scientific Director.

Amanda will be responsible for leading two of the agencies key accounts that will capitalise on her excellent corporate communications, narrative development and patient engagement expertise. She will also play an important role on Virgo’s leadership team.

Amanda has worked in healthcare communications for more than 20 years bringing enormous pan-European and global experience as a strategic advisor in the healthcare and wellbeing sectors. She has worked with companies of every size, from start-up to multinationals, supporting brands and innovations across oncology, infectious disease, rare disease, reproductive health, diagnostics, gut health and more.

Gregor Fyfe Phd joins Virgo Health as Senior Scientific Director building on the senior expertise in our growing medical education team. Gregor comes to Virgo Health from Ashfield Health and has previous experience both in medical research and medical education, working in areas such as CV disease, biosimilars, actinic keratosis and psoriasis on a wide variety of projects across the med comms spectrum.

“It is a pleasure to be working with such exceptional healthcare communicators as both Amanda and Gregor, they both bring so much expertise we couldn’t be happier that they have decided to come on board. Amanda has led some incredibly meaningful campaigns such as working to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and testing among African Americans and encouraging mothers to recognise the early signs of autism, while Gregor brings a wealth of experience to the medical education team, which will no doubt positively impact both our client work and team growth and development,” said Sarah Gordon, Virgo Health Head of Health.

“What struck me immediately about Virgo was its culture – one where welcoming and supportive teams embrace and rally around new challenges with really clever thinking.  That sense of humanity and inventiveness comes through in everything we do – and I’m proud to work for a team that I can see making meaningful change happen,’ added Amanda Moulson.

“The opportunity to join an innovative and people-focused organization like Virgo Health truly excited me. Virgo Health are passionate about making a positive impact on patients’ lives and I’m looking forward to working with so many like-minded others to deliver on that,” added Gregor Fyfe.