We needed to uncover human stories and allow an Australian journalist to see these first hand and to take the story to Australians.

The Vaseline Healing Project mission in Indonesia focused on dermatological training with 140 general practitioners in Surabaya, with a focus on leprosy. A topic you don’t see in local media. And media training also isn’t something that gains column inches.

We worked with Vaseline and Direct Relief to develop – and secure attendance – to a pop-up medical clinic in a remote region of Indonesia, following dermatologists and speaking with patients, to uncover a story with true human connection and resonance.

Such a story needed imagery and film to bring it to life and drive reader connection and empathy. We worked with a selected journalist and Direct Relief to create a rich bank of assets which could be used locally through print, online and social media

We formed a working group with The Daily Telegraph, Vaseline and Direct Relief to build a story with resonance before the mission. We ensured access to the most interesting doctors on the ground, ensured we could find patients with emotive stories to share and gained Australian insights and statistics for relevance locally.

We negotiated an in-depth feature in The Daily Telegraph print and online. This was followed by a roll-out of the story and film/image assets, ensure regional mastheads ran the story in print and online for mass reach.

We negotiated for The Daily Telegraph to tag Vaseline in social media to ensure that Vaseline could share these online, gaining even further reach.

Going from brief to finish in 2 weeks we arranged visas, interpreter, photographers, videographers and all logistics of the trip, as well as the media strategy and earned media outreach.

Unilever conducted an impact audit and assessed that the PR campaign can solely be attributed for commercial results:

? Brand market share increase +60 bps

? Grocery RSV increase +17% (all Vaseline products)

? Vaseline Petroleum Jelly RSV increase +15%

The story gained 13.7 million impressions. It ran as a double page spread in the Daily Telegraph, with the feature called-out on pages 2 and 3 in the newspaper to drive readership. The feature ran with the headline ‘Vaseline’s no fuss war on leprosy’; the lead image a powerful moment of a young woman leaving the clinic with her young son and Vaseline supplies

The story then ran across News Corp mastheads in Print with Sunday Times Perth, Sunday Herald Sun and Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin, with a full film and image story running online across the nation on The Daily Telegraph, largest online outlet news.com.au, The Courier Mail, Geelong Advertiser, The Mercury, The Gold Coast Bulletin, Cairns Post, NT News, The Adelaide Advertiser and Perth Now.

Each story included video content, all key messages including multiple mentions of the Vaseline Healing Project, background, mission and partnership with Direct Relief, multiple pack shots and detail of the role of the product and a call to action for Aussie to get involved with a weblink.

This was all earned and not paid-for.

What’s more, the mission treated 160 patients on one day, with 6 new suspected cases of leprosy, making it possible for these patients to gain the right treatment.