Situation Analysis:
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a matter of life and death. A rare, incurable and progressive disease, PAH causes blood vessels in the lungs to thicken and narrow, which makes the heart work harder to pump blood through the lungs. There’s no cure. The five-year mortality rate is ~43%; it takes around two years to be diagnosed after symptoms start. PAH patients are typically between 30-60 years of age – the prime of their lives – when diagnosed.
Life with PAH can be difficult: Patients often experience difficulty breathing, fatigue and chest pain. Daily life accommodations are often required; in some cases, a task that once took an hour may take days. There’s also a profound emotional and psychological impact. Patients often feel overwhelmed, isolated and worried. With only 40,000 people in the U.S. living with PAH, we saw a need to develop an inspirational, action-oriented campaign to encourage community, help improve patients’ outlook and provide tools to better manage everyday challenges.
Enter “Outnumber PAH,” developed by Merck and Real Chemistry, to urge patients to build a strong multidisciplinary team that can help “outnumber” the disease and advocate for themselves. Outnumber PAH was developed in collaboration with leading PAH advocacy organizations.
Campaign Objectives:
- Inspire people with PAH to seek out comprehensive support: PAH specialists, other patients, etc., to help give them the best possible outcomes.
- Raise awareness of the importance of support and self-advocacy in managing PAH.
Target Audience:
Diagnosed patients with PAH in the U.S., age 30 to 60 and their support systems (e.g., friends, family, caregivers and healthcare providers)
Research:
- Literature Review. Patients report significant physical challenges and psychological impacts like fear and anxiety. They want to hear from other patients; involvement in patient associations is also important. One survey found patients had positive experiences of treatment in specialist centers; 92% said they preferred traveling to a specialist center over seeing a local non-specialist.
- Focus Groups. Patients struggle between grieving the loss of their pre-illness life and striving to maintain self-sufficiency and self-determination. Patients turn to advocacy organizations for disease information, guidance and a sense of community.
- Social Analysis (Meta, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and Twitter). Patients actively seek an online community for affirmation and answers.
- Advocacy Partner Interviews. These shed light on patient needs and the kind of programming that would meaningfully complement existing efforts. Their perspective reinforced what we heard – that having a robust support network is indispensable.
- Campaign Concept Testing. We tested two concepts. Patients strongly resonated with one centered on “strength in numbers” to highlight the importance of support and hope. Also, they suggested broadening our messaging to appeal to both newly diagnosed and experienced patients. As a result, we adjusted the campaign name, tone, sentiment and visuals and expanded our messaging.
Insight:
A PAH diagnosis can change everything, but having a team of people to support you can make a difference.
Strategy:
Highlight real patients’ stories to illustrate how connecting with others and forming a strong support team can be a source of optimism and inspiration.
Execution & Tactics:
The campaign weaves together patient stories of challenges and triumphs to paint a detailed picture of what it’s like to live with the disease and encourage people to seek support.
Our PAH advocacy partners – the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, phaware, and the National Scleroderma Foundation – helped identify featured patients and caregivers and distributed materials.
The heart of the campaign is a hero video featuring two patients – both young mothers – who met online through the PAH community and had been supporting each other from afar. They had never met in person until we brought them together in a surprise meeting.
Additional tactical elements:
- Campaign website (Outnumber PAH) featuring:
- Hero video
- Patient stories
- Educational information for patients
- Conversation guide
- Contact sheet to organize support team information (HCPs, support groups, etc.) in one place
- Information about choosing the right PAH specialist
- Search engine marketing
- Social media content on Merck channels: LinkedIn
- Social media, advertising content on advocacy channels (examples): Link
- Booth at Pulmonary Hypertension Association's International Conference. Invited patients to watch stories, learn about the campaign, take photos, and receive an Outnumber PAH journal which included a conversation guide and PAH support team contact sheet.
The campaign drove thousands of patients to learn more about the role of a support team in navigating PAH and to get the right medical care team support. This is significant reach considering PAH is a rare disease, affecting only an estimated 40,000 patients in the U.S.
Results aligned to campaign objectives:
Inspire people with PAH to seek out comprehensive support
- 8.1K website visits
- 251 resource downloads, a clear indication patients planned to talk with their doctor and/or support team
- 2,786 page views on the specialist landing page, indicating patients sought more information about PAH specialists
Raise awareness of the importance of support and self-advocacy in managing PAH
- 6.6K engagements (likes, shares, comments, saves); 2.8M video views across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X, showing interest in the content
- 23.4 million+ earned impressions reaching an estimated 12.1 million people
- At the PHA 2024 patient booth, there was significant interest in the photo activity and educational materials with over 260 people participating in the booth photo activity and/or receiving the Outnumber PAH journal
Importantly, response from the PAH community was overwhelmingly positive:
- “How wonderful!!” – Pamela
- “Finally!!!! I’ve been waiting for something like this” – Amy
- “What a fantastic moment” – Zuluame
Media Coverage (for reference):
Video for Outnumber PAH
