Dr Foster Intelligence

DFI and Barnsley PCT win Business Performance Award 30 May 2008

The Healthy Breathing Campaign Dr Foster Intelligence created for Barnsley PCT won the Data Targeting award at the annual Institute of Direct Marketing Business Performance Awards.

The campaign used research and focus groups to identify the target audience and how best to reach them. The telemarketing campaign achieved an outstanding 88 per cent response rate; the usual response rate for telemarketing campaigns is 5.78 per cent (DMA 2006). Award judges said they were particularly impressed with the conversion rate and the use of telemarketing.

The population of Barnsley has particularly high levels of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), partly a legacy of the area's coal mining past and partly due to the high levels of smoking. COPD-related hospital admissions were costing the PCT more than £2m a year and affecting the lives of thousands of local people.

The Healthy Breathing campaign aimed to increase awareness of the disease, increase capability of self-management, reduce the number of emergency admissions and reach as many people as possible.

A local poster campaign was used across Barnsley to begin raising awareness of COPD and inviting people to ask their GP for advice. The telemarketing campaign contacted 7,238 homes within the identified areas. Everyone receiving a telephone call was offered an information pack on COPD, the local smoking service, affordable warmth and health walks. Every smoker was also given the opportunity to be contacted by the local smoking cessation service.

The results were promising, providing a strong indication of future improvements in prevalence of COPD and a decrease in emergency admissions. More than 6,000 people requested an information pack, and more than 1,000 people requested a stop-smoking pack.

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