Hedrin is the market leading head lice brand in the UK– it is a non pesticide treatment that is considered by many as the new gold standard, as it has a physical mode of action that head lice cannot develop resistance to. However, research showed that this was not always reflected by the advice given by healthcare professionals to parents. There is also the commercial threat to Hedrin from new treatments with a similar mode-of-action. With these two factors in mind, another overarching objective was to position Hedrin as the authority with regards to head lice treatment and advice.

Specific objectives were agreed to help act as an evaluation framework for measuring the success of the PR programme.

1. Media coverage - secure at least 50 items of Hedrin branded media coverage during 2010, generating at least 20 million opportunities
2. Hedrin Once - communicate the launch the new Hedrin Once product, positioning it as the best head lice treatment available because of its speed and ease of action
3. Once a Week, Take a Peek - raise awareness of the Once a Week, Take a Peek (OAWTAP) educational campaign for consumers, generating at least 10,000 requests for leaflets from the OAWTAP website
4. Pharmacy training programme - devise and distribute a pharmacy training programme that meets the needs of the whole pharmacy team so they are up-to-date with the latest national guidelines on head lice to ensure best practice advice is passed on to parents - generate at least 1,000 requests for the training within four months

DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE PR CAMPAIGN

Research report
• Hedrin commissioned a report called ‘Getting ahead of head lice: a study into head lice management in the UK’ to understand the barriers to effective head lice management in the UK and to see if the national head lice best practice guidelines (from the Stafford report) were making it to the treatment frontline
• Directed and peer reviewed by a panel of leading head lice experts, the report researched amongst pharmacists, GPs, school nurses, PCTs and parents to identify knowledge gaps and opportunities to improve the flow of information to parents

Golden rules of head lice management
• Hedrin organised a roundtable event at The Royal Pharmaceutical Society inviting leading head lice experts, five community pharmacists and two journalists
• The roundtable attendees worked together to agree ‘the golden rules of head lice management’, which would act as the cornerstones of effective head lice management
• It was agreed that a simple and memorable slogan would help parents, pharmacists and relevant parties remember the best practice advice - CHECK-TREAT-COMPLETE

Launch of Hedrin Once
• This innovative product kills all head lice and eggs in just 15 minutes without the need for a repeat treatment
• A media briefing event was held at One Aldwych in central London, with 15 key journalists attending
• The UK’s best-known head lice tsar Christine Brown gave a 15-minute presentation summarising the key findings from the report, introducing the new CHECK-TREAT-COMPLETE best practice guidelines and explaining about Hedrin Once
• Media outreach focused on securing coverage that made parents feel empowered and confident that they could manage the control of head lice

Pharmacy training
• The report revealed that 71% of pharmacists admitted they were not up to date with the latest head lice advice and only 3% of pharmacists knew that national head lice best practice guidelines exist (Stafford report)
• The report findings were discussed at the roundtable event - two key conclusions were reached:
o The latest head lice advice is not currently reaching pharmacists
o Simple and concise training would be welcomed by the pharmacy community
• To address the training need, Hedrin developed a training programme that would be suitable for pharmacists and counter assistants
• The following strategy was devised:
o Celebrate the role of the pharmacy in educating parents and play to the staff’s sense of pride – training to provide positive reinforcement that you are giving the best possible advice for this ‘common condition’
o Position training as an opportunity to get up-to-date with the latest advice on head lice in just 30 minutes, in the format that best suits them best – 16-page leaflet, audio CD or dedicated training website
o Training content based on the Stafford Report to align Hedrin brand with the latest, independent advice on head lice
• The training was written in partnership with and received endorsement from the roundtable attendees and accreditation was secured from The Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Medical Entomology Centre

Once a week, take a peek
• Promoted educational campaign for parents – backed by Medical Advisory Board - with memorable strap line to encourage weekly checking - leaflets offered for free via the campaign website, providing clear, easy-to-follow advice that mirrored the CHECK, TREAT, COMPLETE golden rules
• The campaign champions the role of parents in the battle against head lice, helping them feel empowered

EVIDENCE OF EFFECTIVENESS
Below is a summary of the results against each of the programme objectives:

1. Media coverage
• To date in 2010, 134 items of Hedrin branded media coverage have appeared, generating over 148 million opportunities to see
• 44 items of the coverage included details of the new golden rules of head lice management, whilst 43% communicated the resistance issue with traditional pesticide treatments and the fact that Hedrin’s physical mode of action is the gold standard
• Media coverage highlights include four items in the Daily Mail, two articles in the Daily Mirror, a full page case study in the Daily Express, plus articles in a range of consumer magazines including Now, Best and That’s Life and a series of radio interviews The Times health correspondent Dr Mark Porter

2. Hedrin Once
• 67 items of media coverage have appeared since the product launched in July, with 81% communicating the fact that just one 15 minute treatment is needed
• Consumer coverage highlights include the Daily Mirror, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Woman, Chat and Take a Break, as well as extensive coverage in the pharmacy, nursing and educational media

3. Once a Week, Take a Peek
• 54% of the media coverage secured included a mention of Once a Week, Take a Peek, with highlights including Pick Me Up, Daily Express and BBC Radio Norfolk
• 32,000 copies of the Once a Week, Take a Peek leaflet have been requested in the last 5 months alone taking the total number of leaflets distributed to over 250,000 with thousands of people accessing the campaign website every month

4. Pharmacy training programme
• By 15th November (3 months after launch), 1903 requests for the training had been received with materials distributed for 6028 pharmacy workers throughout the UK (5592 booklets and 1610 CD’s) - over half of the requests for training materials were for multiple sets of information
• A follow-up questionnaire revealed 100% feel better informed about head lice management and treatment as a result of the training, 100% would recommend the training to other members of their pharmacy team and 78% have already had the opportunity to put the training into practice when talking to customers about head lice management and treatment

5. Hedrin as the head lice authority
• The head lice report, the development of the golden rules and the educational materials for parents and pharmacists helped to position Hedrin as the authority on head lice management, whilst 58% of the media coverage secured reinforced the authority message
• Extensive articles communicating the golden rules of head lice management from Hedrin were placed in educational magazines such as Headteacher Update and healthcare professional titles such as Nursing in Practice and Pharmacy Technician Journal, helping drive recommendations from opinion formers
• Hedrin’s share of the head lice treatment market has continued to steadily grow to 32% (up 2% year-on-year), including a 43% share of the non-pesticide market