January 29, 2021

Board gives go-ahead on cBHT campaign

On Wednesday, APC’s board of directors authorized the launch of the cBHT media campaign we’ve been developing … assuming we can raise the $1.5 million funding. That’s good news. Even better news is that we’re already a third of the way there: We’ve raised $500,000 so far, thanks to folks like you.

The board’s approval means that we’re about six weeks out from the launch of the campaign. In February, we’ll be scheduling a Zoom town hall meeting to give you a complete briefing — what to expect, what tools we’ll provide to promote the campaign to your patients, and what will be the “ask” of patients and policy makers. For now, here’s a quick overview:

The campaign has three stages: Define it, build it, use it.

Where we are now: defining it. We’re finalizing the ‘toolkit’ we’ll use to get our message out — web and social media advertising, podcast appearances, smart-TV ads (think Roku, Amazon, Netflix), influencer marketing, print ads, our own websites and social presences, tools for you, and so on.

We’re also honing our messages. We know in general what we want to say (‘cBHT is critical to millions of people and shouldn’t be restricted based on faulty data’) but we’ll need to say that different ways to different people — patients, physicians, legislators. In fact, you’ll see a link below to a survey where you can weigh-in on sample messages.

Soon we’ll begin defining that plan in detail: the search terms we want to advertise on, the kinds of individuals we want to target, the podcasts and influencers who are the best fit, where to run our ads, and more.

Next up: building it (from now through March). Our agency is producing print and electronic ads, as well as a campaign video, and we’ll be making you, our members, a key part of the effort — providing videos you can share, posters you can hang, and even bag-stuffers you can distribute to your patients.

And after that comes using it (starting, hopefully, in March). That’s placing ads, arranging appearances on podcasts, working with influencers, spreading the word about our websites. At various phases of the campaign there’ll be specific asks we’ll make of patients and prescribers, as well as of policymakers.

It doesn’t stop there. We’ll be tracking the campaign — what’s working, what’s not? We’ll use that data to adapt our messaging. We’ll go back and redefine and rebuild.

We weren’t kidding when we said this was possibly the largest undertaking APC (or IACP) has ever undertaken. And we’ve only just begun. So if you haven’t yet, please contribute to this campaign — there’s still so much to do, and so much at stake.

We look forward to showing you the campaign at that Town Hall Briefing in February. For now, give to the campaign!