MRA Marketing was presented with the Best Built Environment Member Organisation Marketing Campaign at this year’s Construction Marketing Awards (CMA) for the agency’s work on a far-reaching awareness and consultation programme to engage the construction industry in an important initiative to improve building safety in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.
The Construction Products Association (CPA) tasked MRA Marketing with delivering a fully integrated marketing campaign to encourage the industry to participate in a consultation on the new Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI).
The CCPI Code had been developed by the CPA’s Marketing Integrity Group (MIG) in response to the product information issues raised in Dame Judith Hackitt’s report ‘Building A Safer Future’, which was published following the Grenfell Tower fire.
The consultation on the Code was open from 1 February to the end of March 2021. Given the time constraints and the importance of the consultation, MRA Marketing set out to create a high profile, cross-channel dedicated awareness campaign. The campaign had its own logo and name – Building Safely; a tagline – Better Data, Safer Building; and a new website.
A launch press release explained the Code and the consultation, followed with thought leadership articles, comments, letters, and blogs. Intensive PR, social media, webinars and direct marketing rapidly built awareness and understanding.
Despite a limited budget, MRA Marketing achieved extensive awareness with more than 50 press appearances for the launch release alone, over 15,000 visits to the website and in excess of 500 downloads of the Code. Thirty-five trade associations responded to the consultation, collectively representing around 40,000 UK member firms.
Motivated by the compelling case for reform in the industry, MRA Marketing went the extra mile on all aspects of the CPA campaign and even worked pro-bono on some elements, to ensure the campaign delivered its objectives.
Awarding MRA Marketing for this campaign, the CMA judges’ commented:
An outstanding entry dealing with one of the most critical issues in the construction industry. The extensive effort in such a short timeframe is commendable, with the agency going above and beyond to execute the campaign, bringing great results at the end. Mission accomplished, not only for the client (CPA) but for the industry.
Thanks to the wide-reaching awareness campaign and seamless consultation process, managed by MRA Research, in-depth responses were gathered from individuals and organisations representing the bulk of the construction industry. This enabled the MIG to review and finalise the new Code with confidence before transferring it to Construction Product Information Ltd (CPI Ltd) in August 2021 to set-up and administer going forward.
Mike Rigby, MRA Marketing’s CEO says:
Grenfell will change the way Britain builds and looks after its buildings. Driven by the Hackitt report our building practices are being reset. The Code is a crucial step in the right direction and the depth and breadth of response in the consultation is recognition from the industry that change is needed to ensure tragedies like Grenfell do not happen again. We are very proud to have partnered with the CPA on this important campaign for construction.
