The British Red Cross asked us to help them during one of the most challenging periods in their recent history, three years after the 2004 Asian tsunami.

One of our first foirees into PR, the charity had come under fierce scrutiny and was under pressure to demonstrate results after record-breaking donations by British people after the tsunami devastated coastlines and populations across the Pacific.

So, they asked us to film their work in one particularly hard hit regions: Aceh Province in northern Indonesia, where up to 90% of the population had died, lost close family, and their livelihoods.

THE BRIEFS

WHAT WE DID

We went to Aceh Province in Indonesia with the relief team, filmed the recovery work up close as well as interviewing tsunami survivors and senior Red Cross people on location. We then handed that personally to British media when we got back to the UK.

We also spent time with the Head of the British Red Cross, Sir Nick Young, to get him ready for a hostile media reception in the UK. We could see with our own eyes the work being done, so supported him into the interviews.

THE RESULTS

Nick and the stories we broadcast were covered by all of the British national media within 3 days of our return to the UK.

The BBC (BBC One, Newsnight, BBC News Channel, online and radio), ITV, Sky, national and international press, and online news agencies took our footage and copy, and we offered our contacts in the media to the BRC’s PR agency so that Nick could meet the media.

As a result of this work, the charity’s PR team won the ‘Team of the Year’ Award in the PR Week Awards and other ceremonies in 2005. Of course, it was our work that got them there behind the scenes, but we were happy that they’d been named.

Plus, the coverage, combined with those awards, raised awareness of their work on the ground for the first time since the tsunami 3 years earlier.