HPV Awareness Day 2018: a Winning Association Campaign

The Campaign

The International Papillomavirus Society (IPVS) wanted to raise awareness of HPV and inform the public of how everyone can protect themselves, their families, friends and partners. To do so, a large-scale international campaign needed to be created in line with the society’s mission and vision. IPVS reached out to Kenes Associations for support in the planning and management of the very first HPV Awareness Day 2018.

The Give Love Not HPV campaign aimed at encouraging everyone to take action to protect those closest to them either by getting informed, getting vaccinated or getting screened for HPV. Taking the starting point that HPV affects everyone, the campaign used the universal theme of love to engage the public. The campaign was built on the idea that we all want to protect and care for the people we love – whether that is our family, friends or partners. The messaging highlighted the diversity of those affected by HPV.

The Outcome

March 4^th, 2018, saw the successful inauguration of International HPV Awareness Day. The campaign was a major success, reaching over two million unique users surpassing the society’s expectations in raising global awareness of the diversity of communities affected by HPV.

Campaign delivery, coordinated by Kenes Associations, was facilitated by a partnership of over 80 organisations worldwide who were supported with marketing guidelines and resources to co-brand bespoke materials, as well as an ‘off the peg’ print and social media suite.

The strategy to build partnerships with different bodies clearly played a crucial role in the campaign’s success – it seems the world was ready to come together to deliver an HPV awareness campaign:

• Over 40 events in 16 countries were delivered
• Events spanned Parliamentary debates, HPV testing drives, community presentations, media interviews, lectures, public information booths, leaflet distribution, conferences and city running events.

Results demonstrated that on social media the #GiveLoveNotHPV drove a massive increase in the global conversation about HPV:

• Online conversations about HPV increased by over 5,000% between March 2nd – March 5th
• The campaign hashtag reached 2 million unique users
• A short information video received 30,000 views
• The campaign website achieved 5,000 unique page views
• The online engagement was achieved in every target country
• The campaign press release was picked up by 250 outlets with coverage in top-tier media around the world

The combination of the energy brought by everyone involved and the strong, simple messaging was clearly a winning formula. The campaign reached millions of people, thus getting one step closer to the society’s ultimate goal of eliminating HPV altogether. The IPVS brand was strengthened, raising the overall standing of the association by involving and partnering with people and institutions beyond their immediate members.

IPVS President and Advocacy Committee Chairs received a Lady Ganga Trailblazer Award, from the Global Initiative Against HPV and Cervical Cancer, in recognition of the campaign and IPVS’s ‘exceptional creativity in proposing and executing impactful grassroots approaches to raising awareness of HPV and HPV diseases.’

What does the client say:

“It was genuinely exciting to watch the campaign spread around the globe on March 4th. Feedback from our partners shows that the day really helped to achieve both IPVS and HPV community objectives and we sincerely appreciate your support and input.”

S. de Sanjosé, IPVS President