Coeliac disease is a serious autoimmune disease that affects 1 in 100 people in the UK. However, a staggering half a million people remain undiagnosed. We are on a mission to help the charity change that, by boosting awareness and shedding light on the health toll of living with this condition. The charity is the expert voice for the gluten-free community and we’re helping to raise its profile.

We have supported Coeliac UK on a number of projects, including Coeliac Awareness Month, Cost of Living, Shopping Habits and Eating Out survey. Our team has secured extensive coverage in national, regional, local and trade media, with powerful case studies. Our work has helped highlight this disease, raising awareness for millions of people, and influencing key stakeholders and policy makers.

Key Project Highlights – Cost of Living

McKenna Townsend reviewed Coeliac UK’s approach and identified new angles for consumer and trade media. The team then recommended a two-tier approach for reaching the relevant audiences with targeted messaging.

To bring the story to life, we emphasised the need for a variety of supporting case studies of those being adversely affected by the cost of living crisis from the coeliac community. We worked with people from across the regions of the UK, which was crucial to securing initial media interest.

McKenna Townsend advised on timings for the launch of the campaign, ensuring there were no known major news stories that would dominate media headlines at the time of release. This activity was repeated following the release of new statistics and research from Coeliac UK. The team secured extensive coverage with the use of case studies and refreshed news angles. This second phase of publicity increased the OTS (opportunities to see) of the campaign seven-fold.

The campaign received over 4,000 pledges and 700 photos shared to Coeliac UK’s Wall of Support. The McKenna Townsend team generated coverage across national, regional and trade media, resulting in OTS of 51.6million.