What is Purpose-Driven PR?  

Case Studies

We have worked on some extraordinary purpose-led campaigns since being founded in 2017 with key examples including:

Challenge

IMAGINE is an organisation set up by Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, with a mission to hardwire ESG into the work of big brands and to bring together CEOs from the world’s biggest companies to create tipping points for change.  An example of their work is the Fashion Pact, bringing together over 60 competitors and partners across regions and cultures to improve the sustainability performance of the whole industry.

IMAGINE came to Higginson with the goal of communicating their thoughts on how businesses can accomplish this in front of a global audience.

Solution

Higginson worked directly with Paul Polman and Valerie Keller, to draft quality thought leadership pieces, spanning in theme from the International Day of People With Disabilities to the attack on the Capitol building in Washington.

Outcome

Working with IMAGINE, we drafted and place eight pieces over four months with pieces including an appeal for businesses to root out disability exclusion, a rallying cry against ‘pandemic isolationism’ and a tribute to Indonesia’s work to halt deforestation all in The Independent. 

In addition, we secured two pieces in Fortune, one on his grandchildren’s wishes for the planet and another on the scourge of greenwashing.  Finally, he wrote for Business Leader, calling for a major shake-up of UK corporate governance.  These pieces have a total readership figure of 437,271,000.

Challenge

The Girl Generation is an extraordinary organisation with the single mission to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in a generation. This crucial goal needed an international campaign to reach across 10 countries and to capture the attention of the public, navigating a taboo issue that has previously alienated intended audience.

Solution

Higginson worked with The Girl Generation to deliver the first pan-African Youth Summit dedicated to ending FGM, attended by young people from across 17 countries. By mobilising local activists, Higginson was able to support The Girl Generation in enacting on the ground change.

Outcome

Working alongside an Africa-based agency Higginson helped the social media campaign #IHaveSpoken be seen by over 20 million people online, alongside securing global media coverage that was seen by over 1,000,000 people.

Challenge

Global NGO It’s a Penalty aims to harness the power of sport to prevent trafficking and exploitation. They wanted to increase their following and engagement so they could communicate their message to a wider audience.

Solution

Higginson Strategy supported It’s a Penalty in their campaign around the Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Florida. Higginson produced hard-hitting visuals and a social media strategy for the campaign, drafting and scheduling eye-catching content to capture the imagination of the public.

Outcome

Over the course of the campaign, It’s a Penalty’s social media channels saw significant growth in following and engagement. The social media campaign reached more than 1m people on Instagram and Facebook and contributed to the successful rescue of 16 missing children in Florida

Challenge

Set up by two campaigners, A Plastic Planet needed to accelerate quickly from an idea to a full campaign pressuring supermarkets to create a Plastic Free Aisle. But in early 2017, pre-Blue Planet 2, the world’s media had not yet woken up to the plastic crisis.

Solution

Using big-bang media tactics, Higginson ensured that hundreds of millions of people have read about the campaign via extensive coverage in world-class titles like the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, BBC and CNN.

Outcome

Higginson has fuelled A Plastic Planet’s meteoric rise to become one of the world’s most respected campaign movements in the plastic-free space. Our campaigning with the organisation spans both media and public affairs, using political support to gain media traction and media coverage to harness political support.  In February 2018, A Plastic Planet launched the world’s first Plastic Free Aisle in supermarkets.

At Higginson we are dedicated to making the world a better place. This is not  only reflected in our client work but also from within our own company. Our purpose-driven team identified a need for a female-empowerment consultancy identifying and promoting ways of addressing gender disparity. So we set up Empower.

Empower identifies clear problems facing women today and works with relevant politicians, companies and NGOs to find solutions to these problems.

We launched Empower in Parliament in 2019, with a panel including Jess Phillips MP and chaired by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

Since launch, Empower successfully campaigned for sexism to be recognised in the online harms White Paper, with coverage secured in The Guardian and Independent among others. It is now working on flexible working and job-share as a vital way to close the gender pay-gap in this country, with a recent letter published in the Telegraph.

Challenge

Despite women increasingly becoming wealth-holders, the finance industry remains dominated by men and aimed at men. WealthiHer is an inspiring organisation that is putting women at the front and centre of conversations around investment.

Solution

Higginson support WealthiHer in the creation of the ‘WealthiHer Report’. This highlighted the issues women face when it comes to finance, and outlined how the industry must improve for women.

Outcome

Following the report, and the subsequent coverage in major national publications, leaders within the world’s biggest financial institutions pledged to make changes. The report was covered Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times amongst others.