Case Study

Supreme CounCil of HealtH

Client: Supreme CounCil of HealtH

Communication tool: Qatar HealtH magazine

frequency: Quarterly

objectives: external CommuniCationS /

engagement

target audience: general publiC

Intelligence

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A nation’s future.

Overview

The State of Qatar is undergoing its biggest transformation in over a century. The country has been blessed with extraordinary wealth in the past decade. But with extraordinary wealth comes extraordinary responsibility: the government now has the resources to lavish on its citizens for the first time, but it must do so wisely.

talktoswitch.com ~ 02 ~

The need to communicate.

The Challenge

One major area of concern is healthcare. The government is in the midst of a huge restructuring of the sector through the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), with a particular focus on primary healthcare.

But with so many different hospital building and health programmes vying for the attention of the citizenry, traditional methods of communication had become fragmented. Even among those involved in healthcare, many only understood the effect of the reforms on their own area, but not the bigger picture.

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There was no single point from which SCH could speak as a single entity, projecting its overall vision for Qatar to Qataris, rather than contributing to the white noise of tactical campaigning.

Passionate Students.

Assembling an audience.

The Solution

Switch and SCH’s media team agreed to target a cross-section of 2,500 senior individuals in Qatar. This included the heads of government organisations working around the country, those working in the health and education sector, and the media. His Excellency Abdullah Bin Khaled Al Qahtani, the Minister of Public Health and Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Health, recommended that we should also build audiences among two other sections of society – scientists and researchers and senior people from the private sector.

The magazine therefore had a dual purpose. Firstly, it aimed to promote the structural changes to the healthcare system, emphasising the introduction of global ‘best practice’ and the introduction of the National Health Strategy 2011-2016. This information would help influential Qataris to understand the government’s work in context, and hopefully contribute to it themselves.

The second purpose was to promote the full sequence of both public and private research being conducted in Qatar involving healthcare.

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Spreading the word.

The Result

Switch believes passionately that all of this thinking is pointless if the product doesn’t actually reach the people it is designed for. We therefore proposed hand delivery to 2,000 senior individuals across the country.

While the magazine’s impact has been felt most among healthcare practitioners and managers, feedback to the SCH media and communications department has made it clear that it is being seen, and read, by decision-makers throughout the community.

Of particular value to the client was praise from the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, which is responsible for religious endowments, and is held in high regard in Qatari society. The magazine has also garnered the support of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al Missned, the Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, who is widely seen as the architect of Qatar’s drive to develop a knowledge-based economy.

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In Numbers

iSSueS-driven healthCare magazine

4 issues a year

2,500 high-level executive readers in the government and private sectors

region’s leading state healthcare magazine

Always talking about you.

If you want your customers in Asia

and the Middle East to talk about you,

you need to talk to us.

talktoswitch.com

Switch Limited

1103A, Business Central TowersDubai Media City

PO Box 24173Dubai, UAE

Office: +971 4435 5711Mobile: +971 55711 8499Email: charlie@switch.ae

Switch Communications

48b Amoy StreetSingapore, 069874

Office: +65 6438 1998Mobile: +65 9005 4753

Email: owen@switchsg.sg

Switch Limited

Al Fardan Office TowerOffice 950, 9th Floor

Al Funduq 61PO Box 31316Doha, Qatar

Direct: +974 4410 1719Mobile: +974 7786 3136

Email: ridwaan@switch.qa