Background: Marketing Doctor was contracted to help a State Department of Health spread the word about the importance of contact tracing and to overcome perceived privacy issues, mistrust of government by various demographic groups, and stigma associated with having COVID-19.

Approach: Work with their team to identify residents who have recovered from COVID-19; Interview them on camera and elicit emotional responses about their experience with the disease; Record them imploring their fellow citizens to cooperate with contact tracers to stop the spread.

This strategy was developed and approved within ONE day of contract award.

Solution: We negotiated record-breaking bonus weight for the department, securing 100% in bonus placements by gross rating points and exceeding it with 131% bonus weight during campaign flight. For every $1 spent, we secured $2.30 worth of value at no extra cost.

Given the timeline and urgency of the campaign, this negotiation success was a MEDIA BUYING HAT-TRICK! We competed against:

• A record-setting Presidential Election window with extremely competitive, expensive, and limited media buying options.
• The urgent need to launch Contact Tracing as an emergency initiative helping residents statewide.
• Media Representatives who were not accustomed to the State Department of Health vendors seeking such high bonus weight on their behalf and were comfortable offering much lower value added over the years.

Results: The budget doubled in value, and then some! This media buy included radio, TV, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Google Display, and has seen tremendous success on all platforms, achieving 77.6 million impressions and 7.6 million video views on Facebook and YouTube. With our help, the state has emerged as a national leader regarding contact tracing success.