Spreading Awareness on the Leading Cause of Preventable Death Worldwide
CLIENT
WorldThrombosisDay.org
CAPABLITIES
Advocacy, Association
CHALLENGE
Thrombosis is the cause of death for one in four people worldwide. Despite its prevalence, thrombosis is often overlooked or misunderstood, and in turn, misdiagnosed. As a result, this campaign posed the challenge of reaching as many individuals as possible, to increase the general public’s understanding of its signs, symptoms and risk factors to ensure proper preventative measures are taken.
As the leading global health awareness campaign focused on thrombosis, World Thrombosis Day, led by the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), called on Stanton Communications to assist in their efforts to spread awareness of the signs, symptoms and risk factors in key target regions around the world, including the U.S., the UK, Ireland, Latin America, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Thailand, and India. The goal? Five billion media impressions worldwide.
SOLUTION
Through strategic planning, tried-and-true partnerships with international public relations agencies, and a creative look into new outlets and channels for spreading awareness, Stanton Communications enacted a year-long public relations campaign which effectively amassed well over five billion media impressions worldwide, and led to the generation of strong relationships with key health and lifestyle media members to ensure the ongoing success of the campaign in years to come.
RESULTS
Media outreach garnered more than five billion impressions and over 950 placements in top-tier and global publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, BBC Radio, U.S. News & World Report, Reuters, Irish Independent, TN, GLOBO TV, The Standard, PinkVilla, and more. Placements were driven by insights and expertise provided by WTD thought leaders and Steering Committee members.
Building illuminations featuring WTD campaign colors of red and blue lit up on October 13th to spread awareness of the risks of blood clots to mass audiences, including the CN Tower in Toronto, Niagara Falls in Canada, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Florales Generico in Buenos Aires, Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, and more.
Strategic partnerships with the Argentinian Health Ministry and professional Latin American football (soccer) teams allowed for expanded reach into niche populations of the LATAM countries. Through promotional banners and social media posts at well-attended football games, to Tweets sent out from the Ministry of Health on World Thrombosis Day, partnerships elevated the campaign past traditional media relations effort.
Influencer marketing in numerous global markets, including the U.S., Kenya, the UK, and more, allowed the World Thrombosis Day campaign to make a social media splash on the campaign date, with many highly followed influencers posting simultaneously, using the hashtag #WTDay21.
Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ forums provided a new, expansive and controlled platform for WTD spokespersons to answer questions from the general public, spread factual information and increase awareness, and curate responses in a way that not only elevated them as thought leaders, but the campaign as a leading resource of data and crucial insights. These forums resulted in a total of 115.4 million media impressions.
Podcasts, while well-established, were an entirely new approach for the campaign. From mental health focused podcasts like PTSD and Beyond, to medical podcasts like Blood, Sweat & Smears, Steering Committee members had a new opportunity to get into granular details about their areas of expertise, expanding on the level of awareness already being spread.
Snapshot of Impact:
