The client
The sponsor was building a registry of patients with a juvenile ultra-rare disease. The condition affects fewer than 1 in 1,000,000 people and usually begins when a child is 3 to 6 months old.
The challenge
The team had no dependable way to find diagnosed patients outside its own database, and needed new ways to tell affected families about the study. Many patients were likely misdiagnosed with similar autoimmune conditions.
The sponsor had never run a digital campaign, and suspected that advertising alone would not move the needle for a disease this rare. We agreed.
The key challenges:
- An ultra-rare condition
- A high likelihood of misdiagnosis
- Low public awareness of the disease
- No experience with past digital campaigns
The strategy
The sponsor’s team was already working with KOLs, centers of excellence, and MSLs. To amplify that work, we built a multichannel plan for community education, engagement, and action.
The campaign was aimed at two groups of parents: those whose child had the diagnosis, and those who suspected their child was misdiagnosed. Content and outreach led both to one of three websites. Parents of diagnosed children could contact the sponsor directly, and parents who suspected a misdiagnosis could request a free genetic test in a few clicks.
The key goals:
- Education for potentially misdiagnosed families
- Engagement and identification of diagnosed families
- Awareness of the sponsor and the study
- Amplification of the sponsor’s ongoing strategy
What we built
Each piece of content fed the outreach, the outreach led to three landing pages, and every landing page ended on one application form.
The campaign included:
- 4 podcasts, 5 blog posts, 3 print assets, and 3 videos
- A digital outreach campaign
- A grassroots social media campaign
- Customized print assets for MSL use
- 3 landing pages and 1 application form
In the client’s words
“Your team’s been a phenomenal partner in designing and executing methods of reaching otherwise impossible-to-reach patient populations. Your existing relationships and credibility with the patient communities we want to reach have allowed us to execute and see results quickly.”
The impact
Within a year, the campaign produced a set of evergreen assets for the sponsor’s MSL, Patient Affairs, and Medical Affairs teams.
The grassroots campaign started a conversation about misdiagnosis among patient and caregiver advocates in related conditions, and drove over a million organic impressions on social media. Digital advertising brought cost-effective web traffic and raised genetic test requests more than tenfold.
The campaign also reached the father of a patient diagnosed with the ultra-rare condition, and connected the family to the sponsor.