We don’t do our work to win awards, but it still nice to be recognized sometimes. We are proud to announce that the Minnesota Health Strategy and Communications Network (MHSCN) recognized our Opioids Awareness & Prevention Campaign we developed with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) with the Best in Public Relations, Marketing and Communications award at the organization’s annual awards presentation.
The MHSCN Awards of Excellence program recognizes the highest quality health care marketing, communications, web-based strategies and public relations. The Best in Public Relations, Marketing and Communication award honors a marketing, public relations or communications project or effort from a talented and diverse pool of entries from across Minnesota.
The Opioids Awareness & Prevention Campaign was a statewide education and prevention campaign addressing the opioid abuse epidemic. The intensive initiative was designed to reach those identified as higher-risk within the state – American Indians, the LGBTQ community, pregnant and parenting women, and African Americans – as well as those able to influence preventative action and treatment. The goals were to reach and engage these target audiences frequently underserved or located in remote areas.
To accomplish the goals, we worked with DHS to produce a detailed audience journey map to illustrate the four stages of opioid use disorder encountered by those affected. From that research multiple co-creation partnerships were formed.
In collaboration with respected soul and hip-hop artists Danami-Maurice Champion and Thomas X, we created a music video “Set Yourself Free” for DHS’ Know The Dangers campaign. Throughout the project, we worked with the musicians and videographers to develop the concepts and messages and deploy them with a genuine, deeply committed sense of ownership.
The campaign’s engagement statistics speak to the authenticity and success of the collaboration.
- Google ads were viewed more than 23 million times.
- Nearly 1.6 million Facebook users saw campaign content a total of more than 12 million times.
- Facebook users shared, liked or engaged campaign content nearly 220,000 times.
- Twitter ads were viewed more than 1.1 million times.
- Videos were viewed more than 115,000 times.
Russell Herder’s “Opioids Awareness” entry received highest marks from the judges for its extensive research, robust approach and sophisticated strategy.
The Minnesota Health Strategy and Communications Network (MHSCN), Inc. is a nonprofit, membership organization. MHSCN provides networking and educational opportunities designed to improve the professional skills of those in health care strategic planning, marketing, public relations and communications.
