Changing the Pattern: Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic across the Southern U.S.
The National AIDS Memorial (NAM), the steward of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, partnered with Southern AIDS Coalition (SAC) to launch Change the Pattern (CTP), a national campaign to spread awareness and end the epidemic of new HIV/AIDS cases among Black and Latinx communities in the South. Together, the organizations took sections of the Quilt to five cities across the South to share powerful stories about love, remembrance, pain, and celebration of lives lost from within the Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Transgender, and other marginalized communities. The visits included multi-day programs with quilting workshops, educational forums, interactive experiences, and events open to the public. The National AIDS Memorial and SAC engaged PRecise to support the initiative by leveraging an integrated marketing approach. We knew from recent work other campaigns securing media coverage for health stories not related to COVID could be a challenge.
Strategies:
Maximize relevant commemorative holidays (e.g. World AIDS Day) and local statistics real-life human interest stories (i.e., a panel stitched by civil rights icon Rosa Parks) for earned media coverage; purchase spots on urban radio outlets to amplify message; utilize social media to reach a younger audience and complement media outreach.
Objectives:
Generate awareness of the Quilt’s arrival and presence, in each market and subsequent activities, securing a total of 2 million media impressions; reach the target audiences, Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ with efforts; drive participation in Quilt-making workshops and inspire action to help end the epidemic of new HIV/AIDS cases across the South
Tactics:
- Earned media relations outreach
- Paid media buys on local iHeart radio stations airing 30-second PSAs helped to drive attention
- Posting on local event calendars
- Social media
Results:
- 200M+ (267,048,500) media impressions, paid, and earned
- 833,200 social media impressions
- 10,430 event attendees
- 38% of Black attendees
- N/A% of USH attendees
- 4% LGBTQ+ attendees
- 250+ people said they were inspired to support a local HIV organization
- 708 people participated in quilting workshops
