A campaign urging farmers to 'Make the promise. Come home safe' in a bid to reduce the high rate of death and injury in the sector, has won a prestigious marketing award.
The Health and Safety Executive's campaign scooped Gold in the 'business to business' category at the Direct Marketing Awards in London last night (9 December).
To date, the campaign has persuaded 15,000 farmers to 'make the promise' to take more care at work.
The first phase of the campaign included a direct mail to farmers containing a 'promise knot', and an invitation to send for more, which they were encouraged to put up in or around their farm as a reminder of the promise they had made.
The mailing, and related trade press adverts, acknowledged the pressures on farmers, who often work alone, and the risks and shortcuts they take in their work.. The campaign highlighted the families and businesses destroyed each year as a result of death and injuries.
Although only about 1.5 per cent of the working population works in agriculture, the industry accounts for a fifth of work-related deaths every year.
Judith Donovan, HSE's board member and agricultural 'champion' collected the award.:
"This is much more important than the awards to commercial companies. You can't compare marketing consumer products with saving lives. It is incredibly special that the direct marketing industry has recognised the "Make the Promise" agriculture campaign through this prestigious gold award".
Maria Phillips, creative partner for Watson Phillips Norman − the agency which devised the campaign creative and led on the direct mail approach with COI, added:
"We are delighted that our belief in a highly creative solution has been vindicated - both in terms of the reaction of the farming community and now with the recognition of our peers
The next phase of the 'Make the promise' campaign launches this month with both a direct mail and advertising focus on case studies of real farmers who have been injured in the field and families who are suffering the loss of a loved one.
All enquiries from journalists should be directed to the HSE Press Office
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