Developing a Creative, Meaningful Public Awareness Campaign

The Wellness Community (now the Cancer Support Community) is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to providing support, education and hope to people affected by cancer.  The Wellness Community (TWC), with support from The Breast Cancer Fund of National Philanthropic Trust, was tasked in developing an informational resource to help fill the existing gaps in supporting and empowering breast cancer caregivers. 
 
To fulfill this unmet need, TWC enlisted the expertise of Jones Public Affairs to create and execute a creative, meaningful public awareness program about breast cancer caregiving.  This vision was met with the creation of the C.A.R.E. Campaign for breast cancer caregivers, a program specifically designed to build awareness of their new resources for breast cancer caregivers and drive utilization of its existing programs, both face-to-face and online.
 
JPA leveraged a mix of traditional and non-traditional communications tools, including securing celebrity spokesperson and breast cancer caregiver Ricardo Antonio Chavira (“Carlos” on the hit television show Desperate Housewives) for a national television PSA and b-roll, and appearance at signature launch event and viral YouTube video.  Other activities included informational postcards for professionals and caregivers, establishment of a national Cancer Caregivers Awareness Day, video clips and charts to accompany campaign press release and extensive national media outreach.

Media efforts surrounding the campaign resulted in significant coverage with high message penetration, across a variety of news outlets.  In all, the campaign garnered more than 259 million impressions, with coverage and pick up in InTouch Weekly, Soap Opera Weekly, Philadelphia Daily News, The Philadelphia Tribune, Philly Burbs, The 10! Show, WPVI-TV’s Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer, Voice America and more.

Challenge

  • Generally unrecognized for their contributions and services, cancer caregivers need psychosocial support
  • Educate public about breast cancer caregiving via a creative, meaningful public awareness program about cancer caregiving that will build awareness

Insight

  • While the cancer community has done a remarkable job identifying and supporting the needs of people with cancer – gaps still exist when it comes to supporting and empowering cancer caregivers

Strategy

  • Prime the landscape by showing general lack of understanding around cancer caregiving  and the needs of caregivers
  • Employ traditional and nontraditional media tools to raise awareness of the existence, needs of cancer caregivers and new resources provided by TWC
  • Engage celebrity caregiver, Ricardo Antonio Chavira, to extend campaign reach

Success

  • Conducted first-of-its-kind national attitudinal survey to establish need for greater understanding, campaign resources
  • Established program components to extend reach of messages, encourage utilization and hosted launch event
    • PSA and b-roll featuring Chavira that played in Times Square, informational postcards for professionals and caregivers and YouTube videos with more than 1,200 views
    • Initiation of National Cancer Caregiver’s Day
  • Secured more than 259.4 million media impressions

Testimonial

While cancer caregiving can be difficult to broach, Jones Public Affairs created a media campaign that generated results across the country.  The team applied a blend of traditional and non-traditional media that made the program a great success.
—Ashley Varner, Senior Director, Caregiving Programs, Cancer Support Community