Company: NJ Healthcare
Agency: MWW Group
Timeframe: 2005
Company: New Jersey Department of Health ?and Senior Services
Agency: Fleishman-Hillard
Timeframe: 2005
When you try to tell a group of people about a service that could improve the health of their children or save their lives, you might think it would be easy -- that they would be knocking your
door down to learn more. But you would be wrong, at least if the audience was a multicultural one.
Two PR executives who have spearheaded separate campaigns in New Jersey with multicultural audiences would tell you that reaching the right audience and getting your message across are among the
toughest challenges.
New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services was aware that the state's African-American and Hispanic women were at unusually high risk for HIV/AIDS. Even more ominous, half the
women living with HIV didn't know it.
A rapid HIV test let people find out within 20 minutes what their status was, but most didn't know the test existed, or that they were even at risk. Janet Johnson, a senior vice president at
Fleishman-Hillard who spearheaded the "20-minute Test That Could Save Your Life" campaign, says, "There was a strong educational aspect to the campaign. Many of these women didn't want to
think their husbands might be having a relationship [outside the marriage], but they should think about it. The idea was to make it seem natural and comfortable to take such a test."
The answer was to reach out to some 300 salon owners in 10 regions to engage them to talk to their clientele about the test's availability and ease. Because the women came into contact with the
information in a setting that was natural to them with people they knew and trusted, they were more inclined to listen. Says Johnson: "The critical factors are reaching people where they will be in a
state of mind to receive a message, and being able to craft messages so they are non-threatening and educational."
Salon staff were trained by the Health Department to talk to their customers, and colorful, informative counter displays provided information and distributed condoms. The tactic was a spectacular
success: calls to the help line increased by 90%. And the media ate the campaign up: close to 220,000 positive impressions were made among crucial Latina and African-American audiences.
NJ FamilyCare, the state's free or low-cost health insurance organization, was working to reach a different audience with its campaign, but it faced similar challenges. It hired MWW
Group to overcome its negative reputation with minority populations and to let target audiences know about changes in its requirements for enrollment. The goal? To re-establish relationships with
diverse community partners and increase awareness of NJ FamilyCare. More importantly, the group sought to enroll 5,000 additional children in the program.
"You have to create your own roadmap" to navigate a multicultural campaign, says William Murray, senior vice president, public affairs, for MWW Group. "There are language barriers, and there are
cognitive barriers. Some immigrants are illiterate in two different languages."
In addition, says Murray, some multicultural groups have an innate "mistrust of official agencies, particularly with health care, because of government involvement.There are issues when people
come from former Eastern Bloc nations or Latin America -- government is not viewed as a positive. You need to overcome that."
MWW rewrote NJ FamilyCare's materials in many languages, but it wasn't enough. They literally took the campaign to the streets, with a mobile marketing campaign that delivered the message in a
variety of settings that made personal contact with their target populations, facilitated by community ambassadors.
The mobile strategy blew the doors off the group's objectives. Contact was established with more than 50,000 families, and 10,000 children were signed up for NJ FamilyCare's insurance program.
Overcoming Obstacles
Johnson says, "We wanted to reduce the stigma, the fear of talking about HIV/AIDS. The more often people see things -- whether it's brochures, bulletin boards, articles, ads on busses, or
community areas in the cities -- the more it helps. As more people talk about it, it becomes less of a taboo."
She adds that for many women, asking a man to use a condom is a difficult issue. The campaign's strategy was to "give women some tips or tools to have the conversation." She adds, "The salon
owners who took part were eager to help, because women tended to be victims in this area. You need to be a bit of an activist to be comfortable with it. New Jersey felt it had to do something."
For Murray, the challenges meant taking the message to a place where the diverse groups were comfortable, as well as working through people they trusted. "You have to engage the community and
create ambassadors," he says. Ambassadors can be church or community leaders, or even local hospitals.
Says Murray: "Catholic charities have strong community networks among Hispanics, Polish, and African-Americans. Part of their focus is to connect people in need with services that are available.
Many are state and federal programs, but the government has to embrace working outside regular formulas. Some are very adept at it."
Because NJ FamilyCare's targets were the kids who so urgently needed health insurance, they had to reach their parents -- in many cases first-generation immigrants. Illiteracy was a big issue, and
many traditional media simply didn't work there. "This is where 'ambassadors' come in," says Murray. "What we do is create trust bonds. A working arrangement, if you create it correctly, can last
forever. You can't do it 'transactionally.'"
Multicultural campaigns call on many skill sets. Says Murray: "We looked at strategies in a new light. We've conducted a lot of programs, but we know going into any community there are strategies
that will work, so you have a base, but you need to adjust it ... We revisited old communications tactics -- footwork, elbow grease and rolling up your sleeves. Face-to-face is sometimes still the
best vehicle. There is something to be said for the human element in communication. It's something that often gets lost."
Contacts:
William Murray, 201.507.9500, [email protected]; Janet Johnson, 212.453.2488
Fleishman-Hillard: Getting The Message Across
The bulk of the battle in reaching a multicultural audience is fought before you even make first contact with the target group, say the experts.
Step One: Know the audience. Says Janet Johnson, senior vice president, Fleishman-Hillard, it's all about "knowing your audience and where they get their messages. We have done
things with anti-tobacco campaigns through churches. You need to do a little research on where your audience is likely to hear the messages."
In fact, Fleishman-Hillard is currently working on a campaign for corporate blood doning, again targeting minority communities, where blood doning is often not part of the cultural makeup. "That's
a hurdle to overcome," says Johnson, "to make people feel comfortable. We are doing a workplace campaign, which should be an equalizer. But it's interesting how what you hear and what you've seen
your parents do makes such a huge difference."
Step Two: Test the message. "You need to do testing of the message among the target audience," says Johnson. "Even if you are part of a community or ethnic group, you don't hear it
that well on your own."
In the case of the "20-Minute Test That Could Save Your Life" campaign, "We did that in a lot of ways by having the public health department deliver directly to the salons and make sure that what
they said hit home," adds Johnson.
Step Three: Speak the language. Fleishman-Hillard was trying to hit a largely Spanish-speaking audience, so they wrote materials in English and Spanish, and they arranged broadcasts
in both languages as well.
Step Four: Pick your media outlet (or other vehicle) carefully. For a Hispanic audience, the radio turned out to be the ideal outreach vehicle, says Johnson. In addition, the group tapped
Spanish television network Telemundo.
MWW Group: Cultivating 'Ambassadors'
The secret of success with many multicultural groups is cultivating an "ambassador" who will provide you with an entrée into the community you are targeting. These ambassadors can be found at
civic fairs, in church groups and other community organizations. And, says William Murray, senior vice president of MWW Group, "You don't have to talk about cultures that are transplanted...
there are cultures within the U.S. that are very much American and long-standing -- African-American, Polish, Hispanic -- that have been here for centuries. They operate differently from people you
would target with mass-education, mass-media programs. It's critical to reach them with services that will help them and their families, but you must work within the framework of their everyday.
"Example," says Murray. "If somebody's looking to reach soccer moms, or working moms, you look to reach them during drive time on the radio, and on certain stations on the radio. Why? They
approach a demographic and its behavior and match the media to that demographic. The medium will be different, not necessarily the approach. You need to understand the demographic. Just because it's
in Spanish doesn't mean all the audience will be able to read, and there are variations on Spanish-language use.
"Without making it too complicated, you have to embrace the differences. If a campaign has to reach cross-sections, you need to use media that way." To do that, you must "engage the community and
create ambassadors," says Murray. He recommends that you look at demographics, as well as just getting out into the community and asking. "Meet with church organizations and break it up
geographically," he says. "Look at the market and see who the key community leaders are, and hit those key audiences. Many are church-related, many are community or civic-related. It can be family
clubs or social groups or soccer leagues. Grab the coach or the manager or team captain and ask who people would listen to."
Once you have identified an ambassador, you have paved the way to success. "Many are more and more willing to help. It's what they do," says Murray. "They ask you for the materials, and they pass
it along" to the people who need the information most.
Ironically, even if you are from the same ethnic background as your target audience, an ambassador is an essential ally: You are still a stranger, and you will require introduction.
In addition to church and civic groups, some organizations at the state level have outreach programs you can piggyback on, according to Murray. "In many situations, you are handing out materials,
but if people are illiterate in two languages, posters or ads or handouts won't help. You need dialogue," he says. "We help with open houses for NJ FamilyCare, usually coinciding with events
they were having on their own. Sometimes the events are standalones, although in some cases we did it in local hospitals that people might use in an emergency, or we host a festival."
Murray has also had success tapping business ambassadors, and Avis Rent-A-Car provided the van that took NJ FamilyCare's campaign to the streets, literally. It's all about creating
touchpoints within a community that will spread to other touchpoints and have a lasting effect. "Once you go 'grassroots/grass-tops,' it's viral marketing," Murray says. "You build a base that goes
beyond the immediate campaign. Once you turn on a faucet, it will continue to run as long as the sources are there."
In addition, you can try to tap into cultural icons, even ones that don't seem obvious. "SpongeBob seems to be universal," says Murray. "We would hold events with SpongeBob to draw the children,
then the parents came. That worked. People would fill out applications then and there, which we couldn't believe. Once you open a dialogue, people are ready and willing to access these services."