Nonprofit PR Awards 2015: Social Media

Co-Winner: JPA Health Communications — Melanoma Research Foundation: #GetNaked

With melanoma diagnoses reaching nearly epidemic levels, the Melanoma Research Foundation created an advertisement to promote skin screening that used images suggesting nudity with the provocative tagline “Get Naked. It may save your life.” Recognizing its potential beyond print ads, JPA Health Communications crafted a digital strategy to bring the ad’s eye-opening imagery and cheeky messaging to social media.

Since the campaigns official launch on May 1, #GetNaked has dominated the melanoma — and skin cancer — conversation on every social media platform. Around the web and especially on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, #GetNaked saw enormous play as followers shared messaged and changed their profile photos in support of the initiative. Traffic on Melanoma.org remains an average of 40 percent higher than the previous year. By the end of May, the #GetNaked landing page was shared, liked and commented on 15,300 times on Facebook and shared 772 times on Twitter. The #GetNaked Facebook page has been shared on Facebook nearly 20,000 times and tweeted more than 1,000 times.

Co-Winner: Pets Add Life — American Pet Products Association's Nonprofit Campaign

The American Pet Products Association’s greatest challenge in conveying its message to drive pet adoption and ownership was providing fresh, light-hearted and engaging content on a subject that can quickly become guilt laden or sad. The backbone of the campaign included a series of viral videos produced by Andrew Grantham (producer of the popular “Ultimate Dog Tease” video) to create a series of five videos, which all went viral.

Utilizing a number of contests over social media, like a Shelter Showdown contest and the Children’s Poetry Contest, the campaign saw incredible social media engagement. The video series accumulated a total over 500,000 views, brand impressions on Facebook reached over 83 million and Twitter and Facebook followers and likes increased to 301,364 and 29,000 respectively. The Shelter Showdown contest participation has increased by over 1,800 shelters compared to last year and continues to draw national coverage.

Honorable Mentions

  • American Heart Association - EmpowerMEnt Challenge
  • EngenderHealth - Expanding Access To International Family Planning
  • The New York Public Library - #ireadeverywhere
  • Shriners Hospitals for Children - Fezzy Gets His Name
  • United Nations Foundation - MDG500 campaign
  • United Nations Foundation, Shot@Life - Blogust campaign
  • Weill Cornell Medical College - “A Virtual Graduation” the Launch of Weill Cornell’s Instagram Platform