Opportunity

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) engaged Studio AMC (AMC’s in-house marketing agency) to extend the reach and impact of their program, “What Every Physician Needs to Know” (WEPNTK), a pre- meeting session to their Annual International Meeting. The primary objective of the program was to provide foundational knowledge on breastfeeding medicine to a variety of healthcare professionals who provide care to lactating patients. The secondary objectives were to reinforce ABM’s brand authority in the field and increase the reach of their thought leadership.

The target audience for this initiative was large and multidisciplinary, creating unique challenges for a small association to reach large numbers of healthcare providers, including pediatricians, family practitioners, dentists, neonatologists, obstetricians, nurse practitioners, and lactation consultants. Furthermore, the success of the project hinged on engaging the target audience with the type of content that aligned with their educational needs.

Process

Studio AMC presented ABM leadership with a unique content creation and marketing program that leveraged the WEPNTK pre-meeting content along with existing downloadable patient materials. The campaign had three primary components: a series of micro-learning videos presented by thought leaders in the field, dissemination of existing parent handouts to underserved communities, and an extensive communication program consisting of emails and social media.

Studio AMC leveraged ABM’s Annual International Meeting to film thought leaders presenting ten unique topics. The completed videos were placed on a custom web page and ABM’s YouTube channel. The social media strategy then focused on driving engagement and click-throughs to ABM’s site, encouraging individuals to watch the full-length videos and download the parent handouts. To drive this engagement, 5-10-second video clips were created and used for organic social posts. In addition, an extensive paid social media ad and ad retargeting campaign was implemented. Frequently used keywords were leveraged as well as hashtags. Additionally, Studio AMC sent emails to ABM’s database of members and nonmembers.

Outcomes

The chart below illustrates various data for the 3-month campaign as well as the 3 months directly before the launch of the program.

Discussion

The campaign met its objectives of reaching a multidisciplinary healthcare professional audience and driving engagement with educational materials. Usage of the parent handouts increased 73% during the campaign period, and there were nearly 11,000 views of the videos. ABM’s website experienced a 62% increase in traffic with visitors taking the time to review other content sections, including annual conference information, membership information, and clinical protocols. Furthermore, ABM’s brand expanded its reach based on a successful social media and digital advertising campaign comprised of paid social ads, and boosted posts. and retargeting. The paid campaign generated over 3 million impressions. Anecdotally, physicians who were not directly involved in the subspeciality of breastfeeding medicine reported that they were grateful for the information, as this is an educational gap in medical training.

This initiative was made possible by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.