Ensuring a Motor Neurone Disease charity and its founder leave a lasting legacy.
The Challenge
Challenging MND approached The Ripple Effect in 2023 looking to raise the profile of their Founder and to raise awareness of the organisation.
The main challenge they face as an organisation is other high profile MND charities and their high profile ambassadors which have the majority voice share.
The Approach
Alex Gibson, the charity founder, is an extraordinary man, and has been the face of the charity since its inception. In order to raise his profile we created different profiling pathways to highlight the more family focused side to his work around leaving a legacy and separately highlighted his many athletic achievements as an inspiration to never give up. A key goal for Alex was to be featured on a national TV segment, so we focused on a broadcast-first approach to achieve this.
Separately, we also nominated him for a series of awards including a British Empire Medal and Pride of Bratain which he was recognised for.
As an ongoing mechanic, we interviewed the charities beneficiaries to pitch as ‘real life’ case studies throughout the year.
Imogen Thomas was recognised as a potential ambassador to bring onboard having recently experienced a devastating MND diagnosis for her mother. We negotiated Imogen’s time without fee to further our media relations and social potential reach.
The Outcome
Our work with the charity is ongoing and we continue to explore new ways for them to be featured as subject matter experts on Motor Neurone Disease.
Alex, the founder, has featured on ITV’s This Morning, GB News, and regional BBC radio and press. He was also the deserving winner of a family holiday in a surprise segment on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and made it to the regional finals for Pride of Britain!
Case study beneficiaries like Alex & Craig (for whom Challenging MND also funded a fabulous wedding) have featured on the likes of The Independent and we secured Alex placement of his own music to be played on national radio.
Imogen Thomas is a brilliant ambassador for the charity who has generously given her time for media activity and attending charity events as a charity spokesperson.
