National advocacy and education organisation Diabetes Australia engaged BBS in late 2019 to urgently develop a strategy and implementation campaign for its new Diabetes in Schools program.

A Federally-funded program through the National Diabetes Service Scheme, Diabetes in Schools is a structured program of training for school staff, designed to bring best practice diabetes management behaviours to schools across Australia. The ultimate goal is to support educators with training which can help to ensure that young people with type 1 diabetes have the chance to learn, achieve and be the best they can be.

BBS joined the national program development team and took the lead on creating a marketing and communication program, and relevant materials, to engage with stakeholders from primary health care providers, teachers, parents and school administrators.

In a matter of weeks, the BBS team supported DA to:

• Stand-up an information-heavy but engaging website
• Develop launch and ongoing campaign materials to reach a variety of stakeholder audiences
• Prepare materials for a media launch with the Federal Minister for Health
• Create a digital marketing program which would reach key audiences and empower them to engage with DA and program knowledge holders

A number of risks needed to be mitigated including ensuring that program delivery had the capacity to respond to the campaign call to action, and also to ensure that communication was appropriately timed to meet the needs (and anticipated anxieties) of various stakeholders, particularly parents and school communities.

The campaign launch with the Minister occurred as planned and the campaign is now ‘live’ with communities all across Australia.