Public Health Communications - Council Advertising Network

Public Health Communications Hub

Bringing NHS and local authority communicators in Public Health together for successful collaboration.

Latest: Football Fever – A tried and tested campaign to prevent gambling harm this summer

Greater Manchester Combined Authority ran an innovative campaign during 2022 to tackle problem gambling in football. It evaluated well.

So, for this summer’s football tournament, Thrive LDN and CAN are helping to facilitate delivery of the campaign – “Odds Are: They Win” – for local authorities around the UK.

Because of the time difference between here and North America, tournament matches will be shown in the UK overnight, exactly the time when most men aged 18 to 40 who participate in risky gambling place solitary, real-time bets.

The gambling industry spends £2billion a year on advertising. They use tactics they know will trigger a bet – especially amongst those who tend to take risks. People with a gambling problem are 9 times more likely to be targeted online with the offer of a free bet.

Odds Are: They Win

The campaign lifts the lid on how advertising encourages risky betting, emphasises that it’s not just an individual problem and signposts people to both immediate help and long-term support.

A toolkit is available so UK local authorities can adapt the campaign and run it for this summer and beyond.
Investing in targeted, segmented paid media online will mean the campaign can disrupt risky betting behaviour by popping up across social media and news websites among those most likely to have a gambling problem – and those around them like concerned family and friends.
A series of “nurturing” emails is a clever way of continuing to reach and support people when they will be bombarded by adverts from gambling companies with massive budgets.

On the webinar, hosted by Public Health Hub Lead, consultant and trainer Russell Cartwright, we heard from:

James Ludley, Communications Lead, Thrive LDN: Who showed us what the campaign looks like, how it works and what the original evaluation demonstrated about its value.

Jackie Chin, Consultant on Public Health, OHID London: Who endorsed the use of the campaign and explained how the newly introduced Gambling Levy will help to raise £100million each year to support research, treatment and prevention.

Jakub Gacon, Digital Outcomes Specialist, e-shot™: Who talked about the power of a personal email to cut through social media algorithms and present people with multiple touchpoints to ask for support over time.

John-Paul Danon, Collaboration Director, CAN: Who set out how CAN will support councils to deliver the campaign online, using a moderate budget, in good time for the start of the tournament, with tracking ad tech to remarket to people who click through and building a bespoke campaign landing page if needed.

More webinars

Webinar 1:
A comms community for public health

In this webinar, two professionals who work on Public Health comms together – one at the ICB and the other at a local council – draw on their experiences to explore barriers to successful collaboration and the tactics they found to overcome them – to recommend “what good looks like”.

Download a PDF of the presentation slides.

Webinar 2:
Smoking & Alcohol Intervention Campaigns

With new funding coming from Government in 2024 for local-authority-led stop smoking services and support, as well as to help combat drug and alcohol misuse, in this webinar, we heard from people who have communicated these public health issues for local authorities and NHS ICBs about how they’ve delivered successful campaigns.

Webinar 3:
Winter Campaigns 2023-24 – What Lessons Have We Learnt?

In this Public Health Communications Hub webinar we share learnings from this winter – based on a survey we’ve been running for public health communicators working in both local authorities and NHS ICBs and Trusts – and suggest ways forward.

Download a PDF of the presentation slides.

Webinar 6: Using robust evaluation to demonstrate the value of your campaigns

We all know measurement and evaluation are important aspects of public health communications campaigns. However, our focus is often on what some now call “vanity metrics” – things like reach and impressions.

At this webinar we explored ways to supercharge your evaluations with the help of award-winning communications professionals with huge success in this area.

It includes a case study from Edna Boampong, Director of Communications & Engagement for NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB on the “Think Which Service?” winter demand campaign that led to a 7% reduction in A&E attendance and led to £5 million of system savings.

Webinar 4:
Communicating Adult Mental Health, Stigma & Wellbeing

Mental health is a topic that cuts across the work of communicators in local authorities and NHS ICBs & trusts, with plenty of scope for collaboration on campaigns.

This webinar provides you with tools, ideas and practical examples of successful campaigns that work to the strengths of both council and NHS comms colleagues when planning and delivering mental health, wellbeing and anti-stigma campaigns.

Sue Baker OBE, our featured speaker, is a global leader with a significant track record, influence, and networks in the mental health campaigning and anti-stigma fields. She now provides a range of services via her consultancy, Changing Minds Globally.

Webinar 5: Steps to be comms ready for 2024/25

The new financial year is extremely challenging for those working in public health communications. Finances are stretched in both the NHS and local authorities and demand for services continues to be high.

Despite the numerous public health priorities, for many of us it is difficult to identify funds for campaigns and even harder to identify funds for learning and development.

In this webinar, we decided that challenge brings opportunity! And we discussed the practical things you can do to meet these challenges and ensure your team delivers high impact public health comms which change key behaviours.

Webinar 7: Immunisation Impact – How To Maximise MMR & Covid-19 Booster Uptake This Spring

A decline in uptake of key vaccines means public health teams are being tasked to come up with new campaigns this spring. In this webinar we looked at the latest insight and campaign examples to give council and NHS communicators some fresh ideas.

Uptake of the MMR vaccine has declined in the past 10 years and an increased focus on vaccines since the pandemic and a spike in anti-vaccine sentiment haven’t helped – leading to recent outbreaks of measles.

Many young children and young adults (who missed out when their parents read now discredited views published in the late 90s) need to catch up on doses.

The Covid-19 spring boosters for the over-75s and those with compromised immunity can also be a “hard sell” with the eligible cohort small and difficult to target & many by now fatigued by multiple invitations for Covid-19 jabs.

Webinar 8: Latest webinar: Make the most of your campaign landing page – meaningful measurements, AdTech amplification, top UX & more!

When we plan and deliver campaigns, we tend to focus on creatives, messaging and channels – and the landing page is the neglected elephant in the room.

But people will bounce right off a poorly designed webpage, whereas a well-designed page will drive your audience to take the campaign’s intended call to action – like downloading a smoking cessation app or booking an appointment for a vaccination.

And if you introduce AdTech, you can open up new possibilities to amplify your campaign by retargeting people who don’t take your call to action first-time round.

In this webinar, we learn how to maximise the impact of public health campaigns by getting the most from the landing page. With Damian James: UX/UI designer who has crafted engaging websites for clients including Sky, Philips, Amazon and Reebok.

Webinar 9: Supercharge your public health campaigns with behavioural science

We run through the basics of behavioural science and show how you can unlock its potential to fuel change in key areas of public health. We’re joined by GP Dr Nupur Yogarajah who is also a behaviour change specialist and inequalities lead to demonstrate how the theory works in practice.

The webinar includes:

Behavioural analysis and an introduction to the COM-B method.
The basics of how to run a public health behaviour change campaign with minimal budget.
Examples of successful campaigns that have driven positive health behaviours.
How research and insight can deliver real outcomes beyond usual metrics.
Measurement and evaluation.

Webinar 10: Never Mind the B******s, How to Get Public Health Campaigns Rocking & Stop Wasting Spend!

Only 3% of NHS comms job descriptions mentioned digital advertising or marketing as skills in a sample used in recent research carried out by the Health Innovation Network South London.

Do you have this skills gap?

If you do, it will hamper your decision-making around paid media spend.

You’re more likely to waste money on channels that won’t bring the right outcomes simply because you don’t know the right questions to ask about targeting capability and campaign measurability.

Pressure is often put on public health communicators to buy space on channels like billboards and bus stops, so the money spent is “visible”.

This webinar gives you the knowledge – based on insight and real-world examples – to make a case for using better performing channels instead.

Webinar 11: Breaking Bad: Using Behaviour Change to Help People Quit Tobacco for Good

“Follow the science” has become a mantra over the past few years. We need to alter this to “follow the behavioural science” when it comes to achieving positive outcomes for tobacco dependency. Behaviour change theory should underpin everything we do to promote lifestyle shifts.

In this webinar, we were joined by experts from ICE Creates, a leading UK behaviour change agency with 25 years’ experience in what drives human behaviour and decision-making. We take a look at:

Latest insight on smoking and vaping and discuss how we can use this to inform our campaigns.
How to keep calls to action simple in a complicated landscape and which channels work.
The implications of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2024.
Ways the Public Health community can collaborate, to spend less but achieve more.

Webinar 12: Go Ahead Punk – Make Your Day: tried & tested paid media tactics that work for public health

We revisit the punk attitude to paid media shown in our earlier “Never Mind the B******s!” webinar.

We discussed tactics to end the frustration of putting in hard graft on campaigns only to be disappointed when you don’t get meaningful evaluations out of them.

Russell Cartwright shed light on decision-making that leads to £millions wasted in public health each year on the sort of paid media that doesn’t work.

John-Paul Danon talked about how machine learning on digital channels can help us better understand audiences and optimise campaigns.

Allan Watson explained how to build targeted audiences tailored to your campaigns using demographic and interest segmentation.

Dalbir Kaur showed how lead generation forms on social media can drive sign-ups to quit schemes.

Webinar 13: We Are Undefeatable in Blackburn with Darwen

We Are Undefeatable is a national campaign to inspire people living with long-term health conditions to be more active in a way that works for them.

In this webinar, we learned how Blackburn with Darwen Council and Together an Active Future delivered a localised version of the campaign that proved a big success.

Some 15 health and social care charities are leading on the We Are Undefeatable national campaign which is backed by National Lottery funding through Sport England.

In this webinar, the duo driving this campaign for Blackburn with Darwen shared strategies to help you maximise the success of your own campaign, including:

Practical resources and tools that can be used free of charge by public sector organisations to run We Are Undefeatable.
Tips on how to make physical activity campaigns resonate with your target audiences.
How local charities, groups and organisations can be trusted advocates.
Making material and campaign landing pages as accessible and inclusive as possible.

Our speakers for this webinar:

Russell Cartwright Chart.PR.MCIPR: Head of Communications, Engagement and Behaviour Change at NHS South East London ICB, founder of Cartwright Training & Consultancy, and Public Health Communications Hub lead.
Peter Dutton, Activation Manager for We Are Undefeatable.
Alison Whittaker-Stewart, Physical Activity Campaigns Lead for Together an Active Future.
John-Paul Danon: CAN’s Collaboration Director.

Webinar 14: Better together – physical activity campaigns through collaboration

Getting our messages seen on organic social media feels tougher than ever. Most of us have noticed declining reach for our posts thanks to unpredictable algorithms and audiences who are increasingly hard to engage.

Could it be that one of our “go to” social media tactics in public health communications is partly to blame? We regularly use toolkits designed centrally, with standardised creatives, to communicate major themes, which means the social media accounts of multiple organisations tend to all look very similar.

In our hearts we know this approach is unlikely to have much impact. This is backed up by evidence which shows it may be counterproductive.

Is it time to call time on organic content? Or does it still have a vital role to play in public health comms?

This is a lively, honest and practical conversation exploring whether organic social is still worth the effort in 2026.

Hosted by: Russell Cartwright: Public Health Comms Hub Lead and founder of Cartwright Training & Consultancy.

Our speakers

Alex Waddington: Communications and Data Expert at Whetstone Communications. This session was inspired by a LinkedIn post from Alex that sparked a huge debate and led to his thought‑provoking blog Is it time to scrap social media toolkits?

Anne-Marie Frain: Social Media Manager at NHS England, whose cervical screening post aimed at young women featuring Harry Styles went viral.

Helena Hornby: Head of Community Collaboration, Orlo, the community engagement platform, sharing insight from thousands of public sector social accounts.

Niamh Oakes, Communications Officer, Manchester City Council.

Farid Norat, Communications Officer, Rochdale Council.

John-Paul Danon: Co-Founder and Collaboration Director, CAN. Try the Social Media Value Demonstrator (calculator) JP demonstrated in the webinar!

Webinar 15: Learning From Experience for this Stoptober

Stoptober has encouraged huge numbers of smokers to try quitting: more than 2.5 million since its launch in 2012. And there is evidence that reaching 28 days smoke-free significantly increases the likelihood of quitting permanently.

This half-hour webinar is a refresher on which tactics are proven to work, and which are not. To help you get in front of as many people as you can this Stoptober with advice on support to quit.

This is the latest in our Public Health Communications Hub series of webinars for both NHS and council-based comms.

In this session we covered:

Proven tactics to adopt and avoid.
Application of behaviour change theory.
How to keep user experience and call to action simple and effective.
Making best use of this year’s Department of Health and Social Care campaign assets.
Up-to-date insight from smoking cessation campaigns currently live.

Speakers:

Russell Cartwright: Public Health Comms Hub Lead, Head of Communications, Engagement and Behaviour Change at NHS South East London ICB, and founder of Cartwright Training & Consultancy.

Simon Jones: Executive Director of Communications at Westco, with over 15 years’ experience in local government comms and policy and a deep understanding of the public sector and its challenges and opportunities.

John-Paul Danon: Co-Founder and Collaboration Director, CAN.

Webinar 16: How to Demonstrate the Value of your Public Health Campaigns

Are your campaign evaluations still focused on metrics like reach, impressions and clicks?

Can you report back to the service that the budget invested in your comms has had a measurable impact on outcomes? Are you confident you’ve made a real-world difference?

At this webinar we explored ways to supercharge your measurement game with the help of an award-winning communications professional with vast expertise in this area.

Our main speaker was Richard Bagnall. He is a globally recognised expert in PR and communications measurement, planning and research, with over 30 years’ experience.

He is also a long-serving leader at AMEC, the global trade body for communications measurement.

Richard covered:

The changing media and stakeholder environment and how this impacts comms.
Why demonstrating value, not just activity, matters more now than ever.
Practical steps to take with immediate action.

Public Health Comms Hub lead, Russell Cartwright, explored with CAN’s John-Paul Danon the best methodologies to use to measure public health campaigns so you’re in a better position to request the time, trust and budget you need to achieve improved outcomes.

Speakers

Russell Cartwright: Public Health Comms Hub Lead, Head of Communications, Engagement and Behaviour Change at NHS South East London ICB, and founder of Cartwright Training & Consultancy.

Ricahrd Bagnall: Co-Founder of CommsClarity Consulting Ltd. Board Director at AMEC and Fellow of both AMEC and PRCA and an Honorary Fellow of the CIPR.

John-Paul Danon: Co-Founder and Collaboration Director, CAN.

Webinar 17: Is Organic Social Media Dead?

Encouraging people to be more physically active is a priority that cuts across many council services – including public health, transport and leisure. It is also a priority for NHS and community partners.

In this webinar there are tips to help you maximise opportunities to promote physical activity across your geography and change resident behaviours in measurable ways.

These include:

Email automation that can deliver sophisticated “nurture” campaigns to take people through different fitness journeys depending on how they interact.
Low-cost paid and free-to-use owned media that ensures your physical activity campaign reaches key audiences using highly segmented targeting and optimisation.
An online marketplace where people looking for local activities have a simple way to check availability, book and pay.
An app that manages incentives for individuals while giving public health teams data analytics capabilities to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.

Great speakers shared their ideas for making the most of your existing channels – and provided suggestions on techniques that could help you deliver real impact.

Hannah McCarthy, Chief Behavioural Scientist
BetterPoints

Dan Hare, Chief Commercial Officer
e-shot

Jessica Davies, UK Launch Lead
SpacetoCo

John-Paul Danon, Collaboration Director
CAN Digital

Hosted by Russell Cartwright, Public Health Communications Hub lead.

Webinar 18: Gambling with Mental Health – How to Design an Impactful Local Campaign

Gambling harm is thought to affect as much as 20% of the UK population, directly or indirectly, with 2.8% to 3.8% of us considered to be either currently experiencing or “at-risk” of problem gambling.

NHS gambling addiction services are experiencing record demand. Year-on-year referrals rose by 130% between April and September 2024. The combined costs in terms of health, criminal justice and welfare are estimated to total around £1.5billion a year.

In this webinar, we looked at the issues public health communication professionals face in reaching those who need support locally with gambling addiction – as well as with drug and alcohol misuse.

We also consider the impact of addiction on mental health and suggest some impactful strategies – tried and tested across a range of public sector services – that can help build campaigns with improved real-world outcomes.

Gambling legislation and regulation are working towards reducing harms, but it is hard to keep up with the technological shifts that mean people can place bets remotely anytime and anywhere.

This webinar covers:

How the gambling industry operates and the impact of advertising.
Examples of interventions that work – and examples that fall short of the mark.
Recommendations for how to design public health campaigns so they work at a local level – underpinned by behavioural research and insight.

We hear from:

Russell Cartwright: Public Health Comms Hub Lead and founder of Cartwright Training & Consultancy.

Matthew Kilpatrick: Head of Campaigns for CAN who has delivered dozens of public health campaigns and presents insights into recent projects around addiction and stigma. Book a chat with Matt.

Background to the Public Health Communications Hub

The responsibility and funding for a range of Public Health services transferred to local authorities from the NHS in April 2013. In the intervening decade, the consensus is that this was a positive move which made sense and has worked well.

Yet, on the ground, anecdotal evidence suggests that relationships are not always as smooth as they could be between ICB and council teams around communications. This situation is not made easier by cuts to public funding and inevitably staff resources.

Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) – statutory bodies that took over responsibilities to improve health and care for the NHS from CCGs – emerged in 2022. They often have relationships with Public Health teams from multiple local councils.

Councils have central corporate communications teams or a specific Public Health comms resource while the ICB may also have its own comms resource or roles that include a responsibility for communications. Sometimes activities fall between two stools, if responsibilities aren’t properly defined – which isn’t a recipe for great outcomes.

When comms resources disappear through job cuts from the ICB or council side and there isn’t capacity to pick up the slack, it’s Public Health outcomes that suffer.

This comms community get together regularly for webinars covering common Public Health communications themes in depth and giving people a chance to share experiences.

connect@can-digital.net