The NDEP launched a communication campaign targeted to the Hispanics suffering from diabetes, with the objective of empowering people with diabetes to take control. They employed two social marketing strategies into their campaign; they used the Hispanic media to provide consumers with hope about controlling diabetes and also supported media messages through appropriate community organizations.
The organizations which supported Prospect and CDC were COSHMMO, The national Council of Laraza, Puerto Rican Association of Diabetes Educators, The Los Angeles White Memorial Medical Center, Perfil Latino and Concilo Latino de Salud. These Hispanic/Latino organizations helped and supported NDEP to develop culturally relevant messages and encourage their use by Hispanic media outlets.
Furthermore, Prospect developed creative concepts in Spanish, which were tested with members of the target audience in Miami, Puerto Rico, New York, and Los Angeles. Based on the winning concepts, Prospect developed, pretested, and produced public service announcements (PSA) with the theme "Rayos y Truenos” (Thunder and Lightning). The Campaign components included press kit in both Spanish and English, 15- 30 second television advertisements, radio PSA and also printed PSA. The press kit included a photo board, print PSA, press release, educational brochures, fact sheets on the burden of diabetes among Hispanics, an overview of the NDEP, and other background materials. These Kits were mailed to Hispanic media throughout the nation, as well as to the CDC’s state Diabetes Control Programs. Materials were received by over 250 Hispanic radio stations, 50 Hispanic televisions stations, and 75 newspapers and magazines received campaign materials.
Their social marketing strategies were really successful because their message reached the whole country through the variety of communicational channels they used and the way in which they campaigned in both Spanish and English to deliver the message across. As a result, feedback from the Hispanic media indicated that the NDEP campaign was a major success; the campaign received 95 radio placements, with 485 airings for a total reach of more than 5.5 million listeners. There were 16 television placements with 87 airings, for a total reach of over 3.3 million viewers, and over 29 newspapers and magazines have run the print PSA, which has been seen by over one million readers. The campaign was recognized with an International Academy of Communications Mercury Silver Award and was the first Spanish language program to receive the Health Improvement Institute’s Award of Excellence.
(The campaign poster)
