Skin diseases and conditions are the world’s third most prevalent illness and among the top 10 causes of disability – yet they are often dismissed as minor or cosmetic.
Millions live with conditions that not only cause physical pain but also deep social stigma, isolation, and mental health challenges. The World Skin Health Coalition (WSHC), formed in 2022, set out to change this by raising global awareness and influencing policymakers at the World Health Assembly (WHA) to prioritize skin health on national and global agendas.
Principles was engaged to develop WSHC’s inaugural awareness campaign, aimed at showing decision-makers that people with skin conditions face urgent, common challenges worldwide. The idea driving our work was captured in the concept #NotJustMySkin – a message that skin conditions affect more than the skin; they impact the whole person.
Our objectives were clear:
Awareness: Ensure people living with skin conditions, their families, and networks heard and understood the campaign message, across all six WHO regions, while keeping cost-per-reach and cost-per-impression within or below nonprofit benchmarks.
Action: Mobilize global grassroots support by driving audiences to sign an open letter to health ministers and WHA delegates, calling for skin health to be prioritized on the global stage. With no past benchmarks, success was defined as achieving actions globally at a cost-per-acquisition well below industry averages.
The campaign would serve as both a proof point of global awareness and a foundation for WSHC’s long-term advocacy, paving the way for future WHA and UN policy progress.
Strategy
Our strategy was to create a campaign that proved skin health is a global issue, not a niche concern.
To succeed, we needed to: (1) reach people in all six WHO regions on a modest $28K media budget, (2) tell stories that built empathy while reinforcing credibility with data, and (3) mobilize signatures for an open letter to policymakers.
Creative Concept:
Discovery revealed a unifying insight: people with skin conditions are harmed most not by symptoms alone, but by the minimization of their conditions by policymakers, healthcare providers, and communities. The creative platform, #NotJustMySkin, emphasized that skin conditions affect the whole person, and minimizing them causes serious harm.
Execution:
Storytelling + Data: Patient stories from Slovenia, Kenya, and Canada showed authentic lived experiences. These were paired with three data-driven message themes – timely diagnosis, affordable treatments, and mental health outcomes – to balance emotional impact with rational advocacy.
Paid Media: With a $28K CAD spend, we deployed static and video ads on Meta, targeting four countries in each WHO region (chosen for population size, WHA influence, and Coalition partner presence). Ads were continually tested and optimized for reach, engagement, and efficiency.
Campaign Hub: A bilingual landing page housed the open letter and advocacy actions. Visitors were encouraged to sign and received a GDPR-compliant four-part email series to deepen engagement.
Coalition Amplification: Over 25 Coalition partner organizations were engaged through a toolkit, emails, and a training webinar, ensuring coordinated organic promotion. Partners also shared printed materials like postcards to extend reach.
Impact Reporting: A one-page impact report summarized results for policymakers and remains in use today to reinforce advocacy efforts.
Challenges Overcome:
Meta ad restrictions: Many ads were flagged under political/social issue rules or for “sensational” content. To mitigate, we produced a wide breadth of creative, ensuring replacement ads were always available, and housed stories on the campaign site to ensure permanent access.
Global ad deployment from Canada: Targeting multiple regions raised risks of ad rejections. We leaned on partner-led organic sharing to extend reach in regions with tighter restrictions.
Coalition as client: With 25+ member organizations, alignment was complex. A stakeholder plan established decision-making structures, supported by detailed toolkits and optional training sessions to ensure consistency.
Through a combination of emotionally resonant stories, data, global reach, and coalition power, #NotJustMySkin successfully elevated skin health from a dismissed issue to one recognized as a matter of dignity, equality, and global public health.
Results
The campaign was a resounding success, surpassing all objectives and laying the groundwork for future WHA advocacy.
Global reach achieved:
Ads deployed in all six WHO regions, with audiences in 130 countries engaging.
Campaign assets viewed 17.8 million times at a CPM of $1.63 CAD – far below the nonprofit benchmark of $7.19.
Campaign message reached 5.1 million people, at a cost-per-reach of $5.49 CAD (within the nonprofit benchmark range).
Exceptional engagement:
2.7 million engagements (likes, shares, comments, video views) resulted in an engagement rate of 15.6%, nearly four times higher than the nonprofit industry average of 4%.
Advocacy actions delivered:
6,870 signatures on the open letter, achieved at a CPA of $4.09 CAD – well below the nonprofit benchmark of $18.68.
Signatures came from all six WHO regions, demonstrating the truly global nature of support.
Beyond the numbers:
The campaign gave WSHC a permanent advocacy platform in NotJustMySkin.org, which continues to serve as a hub for global awareness and credibility. It also provided a powerful set of stories and a post-campaign impact report still being used in offline advocacy with policymakers.
By combining scale with authenticity, #NotJustMySkin not only exceeded its digital objectives, it helped contribute to a much larger advocacy objective… At the 78th World Health Assembly, the resolution “Skin Diseases as a Global Public Health Priority” was officially adopted.This marks a pivotal milestone for the over 2 billion people worldwide affected by skin diseases and conditions.
