Flip The Script
Communication and Advocacy Campaign
Clients: Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
Situation
Globally, Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) use has soared from helping 6 million to over 25 million individuals living with HIV, with one major shortcoming: adherence. It is estimated that Zimbabwe and Malawi witness a disheartening 20% and 26% patient fallout rate respectively, undermining strides against HIV transmission. The issue lies in a counter-intuitive perception: People Living with HIV (PLHIV) maintain a stigmas towards ART, associating it with shame instead of empowerment, control, and respect.
The Flip the Script (FtS) project seeks to reshape this narrative, not just within healthcare, but in the broader community. By establishing itself as a new global ART brand, FtS aims to rewrite the narrative around HIV treatment, aligning it with messages of empowerment, respect, and community protection.
Task
Tasked with constructing a persuasive communication strategy to evolve FtS into a global catalyst for change, with a focus on bridging the gap between the project’s mission and a diverse set of audience archetypes at both global and national levels. The assignment also involved developing a communications plan that would resonate universally, aligning with FtS’s strategic objectives and creating impact across diverse regions.
Action
Guide Communication with Stakeholders: Ensured consistent messaging showcasing FtS’s pivotal role in HIV treatment literacy and its potential cascading benefits.
Championing Adoption: Advocated FtS’s model as a blueprint for reimagining ART adherence strategies regionally and beyond.
Customer Segmentation: Narrow in on specific customer archetypes, tailoring communications that resonate and spur action.
Gather Insights for Each Archetype: Understand how each customer archetype digests content.
Journey Mapping: Visualized the audience's pathway from awareness to advocacy, identifying critical junctures for targeted intervention.
Channel Prioritization: Selected and maximized channels that best echoed within identified audience segments.
Editorial Synchronization: Devised a meticulous content calendar, ensuring coherent and steady messaging.
Effectiveness Tracking: Deployed KPIs to gauge campaign reach and impact.
Global Branding: Positioned FtS as a universal brand, championing the U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable) literacy narrative, underlined by a user-centered approach.
Showcase Triumphs: Brought to the fore successes like STAR, embodying tangible proof of FtS’s viability and impact.
Results
Impressive Reach: FtS made notable waves in Malawi and Zimbabwe, reaching millions across diverse media platforms - radio, TV, Facebook, Google, and dedicated landing pages.
Radio: 14,883,604 reached
TV: 9,534,910 reached
Facebook: 2,747,269 reached
Google: 17,554,176 impressions
Website: 89,554 unique visitors
Strategic Alliances: Spearheaded a collaborative effort with stakeholders like PEPFAR, the Gates Foundation, and Johnson & Johnson, changing perceptions around ART among PLHIV and key stakeholders by clearly articulating the benefits of viral load suppression and crafting a narrative that resonated across audiences - notably WHO and CDC - ultimately persuading local MoH leadership.
Knowledge Dissemination & Stakeholder Engagement: Successfully deployed a holistic Communication and Advocacy Strategy for FtS, elevating HIV treatment literacy and ART adherence in key regions, while bolstering FtS’s position as a formidable force in the global discourse around HIV treatment at platforms like the 2021 ICASA Conference, in collaboration with WHO and CDC.
TV Commercial (:60) to drive awareness of viral load suppression benefits when adhering to ART.
Satellite session at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), sharing the benefits of adopting U=U into a National HIV strategy. Featuring Dr John Blanford, Country Director, Center for Disease Control (CDC) Africa, Mandisa Dukashe, CSO activist, and Prof. Lloyd Mulenga, the Director of Infectious Diseases at MOH Zambia.
