Raising the profile of disabled entrepreneurs across the UK
While the awards had a strong mission and backing from leading business organisations, awareness of the initiative remained limited.
The Foundation wanted to increase recognition of the awards, encourage more disabled entrepreneurs to apply and highlight the achievements of finalists and winners across the UK.
To achieve this, the awards required strategic communications that would amplify the entrepreneurs’ voices while building national awareness of the programme.
The Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and Leonard Cheshire engaged We Do Stories to help shape the communications strategy around the awards and bring the stories of the finalists to wider audiences through both earned and owned channels.
Over three consecutive years, We Do Stories worked with teams from the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, Leonard Cheshire and Sir Stelios Haji‑Ioannou to develop and deliver strategic communications campaigns around the awards.
Central to the strategy was the belief that the most powerful way to promote the programme was through the lived experiences of the entrepreneurs.
We travelled across the UK to meet award finalists and understand the experiences behind their businesses, identifying the narratives that most clearly illustrated their journeys, challenges and entrepreneurial impact.
From this insight, we developed a series of campaign stories designed to work across both owned and earned media channels.
We produced interviews, photography, audio, video and written features that introduced audiences to the entrepreneurs behind the businesses. These stories formed the foundation of the awards communications across media outreach, digital platforms and stakeholder engagement.
Alongside the content development, we shaped media narratives around the awards, securing coverage across national and regional outlets, including the BBC and business media, helping ensure the entrepreneurs’ stories reached audiences far beyond the awards ceremony itself.
The campaigns ensured the stories of disabled entrepreneurs remained central to the awards before, during and after the Awards ceremony each year.
Over three years, the campaigns helped strengthen the profile of the Stelios Awards for Disabled Entrepreneurs and increase recognition of the entrepreneurs involved.
The stories of finalists reached national and regional audiences through broadcast, business and regional media coverage.
The strategic storytelling approach helped grow awareness of the awards and encouraged more disabled entrepreneurs to engage with the programme.
By placing founders’ experiences at the centre of communications, the campaigns helped demonstrate the scale of entrepreneurial talent within the disabled community while strengthening the awards’ visibility across the UK.
Senior Manager
(Project Lead of Stelios Awards)
