Making an impact at the Edelman Challenge Day

Posted 24 May 2018

What happens when you bring together 13 high-impact UK charities with 13 teams of communications experts from global communications firm, Edelman? Earlier this month we did just that. Each charity came armed with their own unique marketing and communications challenge, ready to put their dedicated team of experts to the test. Here the staff at Edelman share their experience of their away-day with a difference.

Each year, Edelman UK holds two all-staff meetings. The meetings are a chance for us to get together as a business and work on a shared objective. This spring, we wanted to do something different, and most importantly – give back.

#EdelmanChallengeDay

On 3 May, we ran our first ever #EdelmanChallengeDay. The day saw us taking 550 employees out of the London office to work on a range of projects with 24 different charity partners, 13 of which were via Media Trust.

The briefs immediately excited us. For example, we were given the opportunity to help:

  • CancerCare create an integrated marketing communications strategy to build reach
  • Wales Air Ambulance develop tools and processes for crisis communications
  • Single Homeless Project analyse their digital campaigns and invest in paid media
  • Impact Theatre build its audience online through digital campaigns
  • Sickle Cell & Young Stroke Survivors rebrand their assets and communications
SCYSS charity with their Edelman Team

Charity Sickle Cell & Young Stroke Survivors with their team of volunteers including Edelman's
UK CEO, Ed Williams

The Results

Not only was the day extremely rewarding for our teams, but we saw real progress on the day. Our teams’ expertise helped them dispel common myths and provide them with the tools to help grow their charities. Our teams are now keeping in touch with their charity partners and coaching them through their plans and helping to guide their growth.

We were incredibly proud to receive the following feedback from our partners:

Sickle Cell and Young Stroke Survivors

“I have grown 10 feet tall overnight! You and the team were spot on, on everything.

I am so grateful for the time you all took to understand the issues we face and most importantly come up with a brief or narrative that matches. This has been an issue I have been trying to translate to paper for many years but it took you guys only 4 hours! You have given us a top end brand and narrative that embraces the charity; this will take us to the top so we will be in a place to attract high end donors and hopefully a Patron.”

Wales Air Ambulance

“Laura and I would like to thank you again for all your help at the Charity Challenge yesterday. We were blown away by how much was covered and put into a plan in such a short space of time! It really was a fantastic day and we enjoyed working with you all. You’ve given us new insights and a whole new crisis comms plan, which will undoubtedly make a huge difference to Wales Air Ambulance and take us from strength to strength in future.”

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