Client:
Fertility Centers of Illinois is one of the leading fertility treatment practices in the United States, providing advanced reproductive endocrinology services for over 30 years with more than 35,000 babies born. With a team of 10 nationally and internationally recognized physicians who treat thousands of patients each year at 10 different locations, the practice has earned a reputation for overcoming hard-to-solve fertility issues.

Challenge:
Each year in April, National Infertility Awareness Week is the largest infertility observance of the year and an opportunity to stand out as an industry leader while educating the public and building awareness. NIAW was created by RESOLVE, The National Infertility Association. With hundreds of practices across the country seeking to build awareness, competition is steep.

Solution:
Primary research found that most patients are not educated on their personal fertility potential. With every fertility center in the country vying for public attention during NIAW, FCI wanted to stand out as a leader and therefore commissioned a market research company a the suggestion of GKC PR for a national online survey to uncover unique information regarding family planning goals and personal fertility knowledge among childbearing women in the US.

The survey interviewed 1,208 women ages 25-45 without children in the United States, ensuring that national selection and equal representation from four main regions of the country were represented. The survey was hosted online, with participants recruited from multiple web-based recruiting panels. Once the research findings were compiled, GKC PR had the task of mining the data for the most interesting and newsworthy angles. Given the goal of NIAW, we wanted to focus on fertility knowledge and education. Some of the most compelling statistics: 89% agree that fertility education should be mentioned at an Ob/Gyn visit, 79% agree that fertility education should be included in sex ed curriculum, when asked if they knew ovarian reserve declines after 35 approximately 48% had heard of this a little or not at all, and when women were asked if they would have made different choices if they had understood their fertility at a younger age, 52% said yes. Using these research findings, we created a comprehensive campaign to promote fertility education and awareness.

A press release, daily blog series, fertility quiz, newsletter series, infographic, patient story, landing page, social media content, key messages, event series and promotional materials for referring physicians and FCI offices were created. All components promoted NIAW, fertility education, and included the national research where possible. Extensive national, local and industry media outreach was completed with the press release and the release was placed on the wire. GKC PR conceptualized, created and managed the entire campaign.

Results:
Every facet of the campaign was embraced by the public and was a complete success.

Eight media placements were secured:

  • Fox Chicago
  • Medscape
  • Mom.me
  • Fertility Authority
  • BlogHer
  • Chicago Tribune Online
  • ChicagoNOW
  • Stamford Advocate

Metrics:

  • Online Reach: 68.2M
  • Impressions: 147K
  • Social Media Shares from Press: 608
  • The quiz was taken 595 times
  • Hyperlinks: 1
  • Patient inquiries via the website increased 20% in April (over previous month)
  • Website visitors increased 20% and page views increased 22% during the two-week period of the campaign (4/24-5/8) when compared to the previous two weeks in April