Media Campaign to Raise Awareness of Prediabetes and Diabetes Prevention

Submission Date: August 2014

Entry Type: Case Study

State/Territory Submitted on the Behalf of: Colorado

States/Territories Involved: Colorado

Funding Source: NACDD

Domain Addressed:

Environmental Approaches

Public Health Issue:

• 86 million (more than 1 out of 3) American adults have prediabetes, and 9 out of 10 people with prediabetes do not know they have it. In Colorado, 6% of adults identified with having prediabetes. Without lifestyle changes to improve their health, 15 – 30% of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within five years.
• The Diabetes Prevention Program research study showed that making modest behavior changes helped participants lose 5 – 7% of their body weight and reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58% in people with prediabetes.
• Most people with prediabetes do not know they have it and that there is a program that can prevent or delay the onset of diabetes. Raising awareness of prediabetes risk factors and the National Diabetes Prevention Program’s (National DPP) evidence-based lifestyle change program among people at risk for developing diabetes can promote increased used of the lifestyle change program.

Project Objectives:

To contract with media to launch targeted campaigns to raise awareness of prediabetes and provide information about the evidence-based lifestyle change program and how to enroll

Program Action:

To close the gap between the number of Coloradans with prediabetes and the number who know they have it, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) developed a media campaign to raise prediabetes awareness in Denver, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, and surrounding areas. CDPHE released a Request for Proposal to identify its media partner for the awareness campaign. CDPHE selected KCNC, the Denver CBS television affiliate. CBS4 provided in-kind services that included development of the creative for the campaign. An initial step in campaign development was to review existing prediabetes awareness campaigns and materials. CDPHE and CBS4 chose the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) H.A.L.T. Diabetes campaign as a starting point. CBS4 built on the H.A.L.T. Diabetes message by adding information about prediabetes risk factors and the evidence-based lifestyle change program. The campaign included :15 and :30 second TV spots, social media postings, and a prediabetes landing page on the CBS4 Denver website (cbsdenver.com/prediabetes). The campaign helped Coloradans recognize if they were at risk for prediabetes, offered the evidence-based lifestyle change program as a solution, and prompted them to call the American Diabetes Association (ADA) hotline (1-800-DIABETES) to learn more.

The campaign ran from October to December, 2013. Television advertisements were placed based on target audience and media channel demographics. CDPHE and CBS4 created a webpage with educational information and links to prediabetes resources. Over the course of the campaign, the number of media spots exceeded what was planned. A quiz was conducted among CBS4 viewers pre- and post-campaign to determine campaign effectiveness. Simultaneously, a communication kit was developed and posted online to support partner-driven awareness efforts (https://sites.google.com/site/diabetespreventionprogram/home/communication-kit).  While aimed at the general public, the campaign was expected to facilitate conversations among healthcare providers, health plans, and employers about prediabetes, the lifestyle change program, and the need to have this covered as a health benefit.

“As a company committed to the health and wellness of our community, CBS4 was proud to partner with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to raise awareness about prediabetes. We have been working closely with the American Diabetes Association over the years to create awareness about diabetes so the prediabetes campaign was a natural extension of our ongoing efforts around the issue. Through a multi-faceted campaign we were able to reach 1.3 million adults.”          -Elaine D. Torres, CBS4

State Health Department Roles

• Utilized a fair and impartial process to select a qualified vendor
• Contracted with CBS4 (KCNC) as the vendor to develop and launch the campaign
• Linked CBS4 to existing marketing materials and resources they could use or adapt for the campaign
• Provided content expertise and technical assistance to CBS4 as they created the television and digital advertisements
• Prepared ADA hotline to refer consumers to the evidence-based lifestyle change program in response to the media campaign call to action

Partners

• CBS4
• American Diabetes Association
• State health department communication staff

Impact/Accomplishments:

Results of the media campaign:

• 15,837,300 Media impressions
• 1,561,026 Online impressions
• 5,432 Visits to website
• 1.3 million Adults with prediabetes potentially reached through campaign
• 7-9% increases in CBS4 viewers’ awareness of prediabetes and the evidence-based lifestyle change program
  • 8% increase in respondents who correctly answered that 1 in 3 Coloradan adults have prediabetes
  • 9% increase in respondents who reported seeing advertising messages about diabetes prevention very or somewhat frequently
  • 7% increase in respondents who selected “Call 1-800-DIABETES” as the best way to connect to a lifestyle change program

Challenges/Lessons Learned:

Factors Supporting Success

• Dedicated Funding: $112,000
• Access to state health department communication staff with experience reaching audiences across multiple communication channels
• Existing diabetes prevention communication plan
• Ability to execute contracts with partners
• Leveraged existing H.A.L.T. Diabetes materials developed by NACDD and CBS Health Solutions
• Partnered with local television station CBS4
• Planned to use new grant funding to continue and expand the campaign

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge: Needed to revise their plan to use CDC prediabetes marketing materials in the media campaign
Solution: Identified other media campaigns and marketing materials, including NACDD’s national H.A.L.T. Diabetes campaign

Challenge: Lack of a consistent name and brand made the lifestyle change program difficult to market through one awareness campaign
Solution: The campaign used “Diabetes Prevention Program” as the generic name for the program, and the ADA hotline staff provided the specific name of the program provider at the time of referral

Challenge: One year was insufficient time to identify and contract with a campaign vendor and allow the vendor to have enough time to create and implement the campaign
Solution: State staff and the media contractor worked quickly to deliver the campaign in a three-month timeframe

Challenge: Information to increase prediabetes awareness and encourage enrollment in the evidence-based lifestyle change program was a lot to include in brief media messages
Solution: The messages were simplified and focused on:  1) What can I do?  2) Am I at risk?

Next Steps:

CDPHE executed a second contract with CBS to continue the current campaign using funding from the CDC State Public Health Actions grant (DP13-1305). This second contract will continue to advertise the 1-800-DIABETES hotline as a way to find out about organizations that offer the evidence-based lifestyle change program.

Program Areas:

Diabetes

State Contact Information:

CO
Kelly McCracken
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
303-692-2512
kelly.mccracken@state.co.us

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