HEPATITIS B AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: "IT'S BEST TO TEST!" Promo / PR Ad

Category: Healthcare and Services
Advertiser: BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB, KGAA GERMANY
Product/Service: HEPATITIS B AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Associate Director Business Communications: Friederike Herrfurth (Bristol-Myers Squibb)
Public Relations Manager: Nicole Winkler (Bristol-Myers Squibb)
Business Director Healthcare: Eszter Viragh (Ketchum Pleon)
Head of Healthcare Germany: Ina Fürholzer (Ketchum Pleon)
Director Client Services: Jonas Hirscheider (Interone)
Junior Consultant: Sandra Lingk (Ketchum Pleon)
Planning Director: Stephan Tewes (Interone)
Media placement: Ad campaign doctors (52 ads) - GP media - 1 March 2009
Media placement: Media relations doctors (63 clippings) - GP media - 1 March 2009
Media placement: Media relations public (286 clippings) - daily press, magazines, online media - 19 May 2009
Media placement: Billboard/CLP campaign public (13.415 appearances) - in 13 major cities - 19 May 2009
Media placement: Cinema spot (86 cinemas, 1.263 appearances) - Cinemas in 13 major cities - 19 May 2009
Media placement: Radio spots (155 spots) - RTL radio & partners - 19 May 2009

Summary of the Campaign

Hepatitis B – the underestimated danger The liver infection Hepatitis B is a disease that can have fatal late effects. Although approximately 500,000 people in Germany are chronically infected with the Hepatitis-B-virus (HBV), the disease is hardly known amongst Germans. In addition, it is underdiagnosed and thus undertreated. To raise awareness for the disease in the public and also amongst General Practitioners, inform about its transmission ways, risk groups and ways of detecting and thereby prevent the disease from spreading further, a 360° crossmedia awareness campaign was set up. The channels used included PR, advertising, online and direct communication. The strategy was to make Hepatitis B visible amongst the defined target groups by pointing out the unrecognized danger for HBV-infection in everyday life and address each individual at risk. Therefore, strong visuals, a strong claim (‘The virus is waiting where you don’t expect it’) and a call-to-action (‘Hepatitis B? It’s best to test!’) were created. Campaign kick-off was a press conference on 19th May 2009, World Hepatitis Day. The results include high media response in general as well as specialised media. Also, market research shows that the target groups have recognised the campaign, understood the messages and taken action.

The Goal
Prior to the campaign, market research was conducted (T0-screening) showing that Hepatitis B, its transmission ways and potential late effects are hardly known amongst the public and that GPs often do not take Hepatitis B into consideration in their diagnosis and do not know precisely how to diagnose patients and further attend to them. The aim was therefore to - raise awareness for this infectious disease and increase knowledge about its transmission ways, potential late effects and risk groups - motivate people belonging to risk groups to conduct a Hepatitis-B-test - motivate GPs to test potential patients at risk.

Results
Results T1-Screening - The public has noticed the campaign and knows the relevant messages - The campaign and its tools motivate more than 50% of GPs to talk about Hepatitis B - patients per quarter have increased significantly in doctors offices - Significantly more doctors tested patients - many more patients were diagnosed with chronic Hepatitis B in medical offices Medical campaign: - 44 print clippings, approx. 2.4m circulation (media relations) - 1.4m contacts (print advertising) with 87.9 % outreach - 19 online clippings, min. 6m visits - 5 % mailing response rate - 98 % coverage of GPs with direct communication (at least one contact per person) Public campaign - 99 print clippings, approx. 29.5m circulation (media relations) - 175m contacts (ad-campaign) - 133 online clippings, 14 blog entries, min. 125.7m visits - 30 radio features, 35 infomercials, 120 information spots (3m listeners/hour) - 10 TV features, min. 2.9m outreach

Execution
An integrated 360° awareness campaign (including PR, advertising, online, direct communication) with a credible initiative as sender was created. As partners, the two most important players in the field of liver diseases were brought aboard: Deutsche Leberhilfe e.V. (patient organisation) and Deutsche Leberstiftung (scientific network). Initially, GPs were addressed in their key role as “first detector” of HBV and equipped with information to diagnose potential risk patients. Then the general public was addressed: The advertising focus (billboards, CLPs, cinema and radio spot) lay on 13 cities with an increased HBV prevalence. As migrants have a higher HBV-risk, the comedians “Erkan & Stefan” acted as testimonials – reaching migrants at eye-level without stigmatizing. To concentrate all information and services (brochures, leaflets, diagnosis tools, videos) on a central platform, the website www.HepB.de was set up. All activities were framed by all-embracing media relations with general and trade media (print, online, radio, TV).

The Situation
Hepatitis B is a liver infection, caused by the Hepatitis-B-virus (HBV). HBV is transmitted through blood and infected bodily fluids and is a hundred times more contagious than HIV. Approximately 500.000 people in Germany are chronically infected with this virus but only 25 % of them are diagnosed and less than 10 % of the patients are being treated. Reasons are that many patients do not show typical symptoms and are therefore not diagnosed. Late effects of untreated Hepatitis B can be fatal: liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and even death. Also, infected people might unknowingly infect others.

The Strategy

The strategy was to make Hepatitis B visible amongst the defined target groups by pointing out the unrecognised danger for HBV-infection in everyday life and address each individual at risk by: - using strong, meaningful visuals showing objects through which and situations in which the Hepatitis-B-virus can be transmitted. - using a memorable claim (“The virus is waiting where you don’t expect it”) - implementing a strong visual call-to-action-logo (“Hepatitis B? It’s best to test!”) The campaign messages were to be: - easily understandable - arousing and motivating - not discriminating - specific and focussed (for each target group) The following target groups were defined: - General public - General Practitioners