Campaign Touches Millions With Message About Family Medicine's Value

Have you ever stood at the edge of a crowded room and tried to get the attention of someone on the other side? If you have, you know how hard it is to succeed when you're competing with the din of information overload. It helps immensely to stand out in a way that relates to your intended recipient's interests and needs.

The Academy faces a similar challenge whenever it reaches out to the public regarding the value of family medicine. A recent AAFP media campaign succeeded significantly in the ongoing task of meeting that challenge.

The campaign's intent was to help women ages 25 to 54 understand who family physicians are, what they do and the value they provide when they offer patients a personal medical home. These women are key health care decision makers for themselves and their family members, so reaching them is critical.

The campaign centerpiece -- the results of an AAFP-commissioned Harris Interactive survey of more than 1,000 American women -- bore the title "Fixing Health Care: What Women Want." Talk about a topic that matches the target group's interests and needs!

The Academy pitched the survey results to the news media in a variety of ways, including an interactive webcast, a satellite media tour and radio news releases. The results to date are impressive.

The AAFP campaign has reached more than 20 million consumers, including those in all of the top 10 media markets. Campaign information has been used by media outlets ranging from CNN to The Discovery Channel to the Hispanic Communications Network. Cities reached range from New York City to San Diego, from Minneapolis to Houston, with many points in between. The campaign has realized a 370 percent return on the AAFP's investment, in terms of the estimated value of the resulting coverage had the AAFP been required to pay for it.

Furthermore, it's not over yet. The beauty of this type of campaign is that it will continue to generate media exposure as more journalists learn about the campaign and use its materials in their health coverage.

Another recent AAFP media effort will help foster this continued coverage. Last month, the Academy created five video vignettes and posted them to the video-sharing Web site YouTube and other online sources, as part of a "viral" campaign designed to promote the specialty to a global audience. One of the vignettes talks about the Harris survey results, and all of the vignettes address the value of family medicine.

Feel free to further leverage the reach of these video vignettes and the AAFP media campaign by posting the vignettes to your practice Web site. Information on how to do it is available to the right of each video on YouTube, under the word "Embed."