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The Tonic leads a charity PR strategy for Astriid – a non profit that helps people affected by long-term illness to find flexible employment opportunities
After becoming a registered charity, Astriid commissioned The Tonic with a PR brief to help:
- drive member and employer sign-ups
- build relationships with charities and like-minded organisations
- support its fundraising goals, by raising awareness.
Core to Astriid’s message is how work provides normality, routine, challenges and rewards to the UK’s million-strong ‘Invisible Talent Pool’. These are people who have professional skills and want to progress a career, but have chronic healthcare issues themselves, or care for those who do.
The Tonic’s charity PR strategy was hinged around encouraging the HR industry to think differently about experienced professionals with health issues. By addressing social challenges through compelling storytelling, The Tonic successfully placed the organisation at the forefront of inspiring behavioural change.
The Results
Reaching a total audience of 28 million, the campaign secured 75 pieces of print, online and broadcast media coverage. Highlights included BBC Breakfast – which featured interviews with the charity’s founder, its first successful candidate and their employer – and double page spreads in My Weekly, Choice and HR Director.
Additional coverage generated by The Tonic included the Financial Times, Tech Market Review, Charities Management and Able magazine.
Crucially, 75% of coverage contained a website mention or link helping Astriid to attract over 650 candidates and over 200 business registrations, resulting in the creation of almost 100 flexible positions and over 1.5K connections made via the platform. The charity also raised more than £50,000 in its first year, with The Tonic playing a vital role in developing award submissions that have seen Astriid named Recruiter’s Charity of the Year for an unprecedented two years running.
Steve Shutts, Astriid chairman and brother of the charity’s late founder David Shutts OBE said:
“Astriid launched as a charity in 2018 with the aim of connecting people with long-term health conditions to businesses in need of talent and expertise. With a UK-wide ambition, it was clear from the outset that we would need a focused team of specialist communicators to simultaneously reach the communities of candidates and UK businesses from which we would recruit.
“Tonic immediately tuned into our brief; they have been extremely business-like and laser focused, gaining us the coverage and support we have needed as we grew. The team is comprised of accomplished professionals; understanding, empathetic and hugely personable, a real joy to have on our team.”
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