Freshfield wins Best B2B Campaign at Northern Marketing Awards

Freshfield has won Best B2B Campaign at this year’s Northern Marketing Awards alongside client Lancashire County Council for #AskForHelp, a campaign supporting Lancashire business owners through the coronavirus pandemic.

#AskForHelp, which was devised and ran by Freshfield for Boost; Lancashire County Council’s £6m Business Growth Hub, transformed Boost into a support service for worried business owners and managers.

The campaign was rolled out within a week, launched on the first day of the UK’s national lockdown in March and has since helped more than 7,000 people by utilising Boost’s helpline and online channels.

Judges commended #AskForHelp’s simple, powerful call to action to business owners and the speed with which the whole Growth Hub was transformed from growth to resilience support.

Simon Turner, managing director, Freshfield, said: “This campaign was so important because it was all about communicating business critical information to business owners and managers which were affected by the coronavirus pandemic and giving those people somebody to talk to.”

#AskForHelp involved repositioning Boost’s website to include a business advice hub and a multi-channel marketing campaign to encourage people to ring Boost’s support helpline and ask for help on issues surrounding finance, continuity and health and safety.

Freshfield also worked with more than 300 public and private sectors to encourage them to promote the campaign.

Simon added: “A huge range of different partners have been involved in this project and it shows we have a world class business community in Lancashire. As we have seen with this week’s lockdown, there is still a huge amount to be done in helping Lancashire through coronavirus and #AskforHelp is continuing to provide that.

“Winning this award is a proud moment for the company. Through coronavirus we have continued to invest in the business and provide a full-service marketing model backed up by great ideas – it’s brilliant this project has been recognised as part of that.”

Andrew Leeming, programme manager, Boost said: “The last few months have been an emotional journey for the entire business community and our advice was simple: ask for help. Ring our helpline. Let us help and support your business through the unique challenges it is currently facing.

“Repositioning the whole of Boost could have taken months but was delivered in less than a week. Freshfield have worked with a huge range of Boost partners to deliver exceptional results, providing vital support to the people of Lancashire at a time of needs.”

The virtual awards ceremony can be viewed here.