preventive healthcare

Publishers To Women: Book Medical Exams Now

From mammograms to mental health screenings, two media companies -- MaleRoom and theSkimm -- are involved in separate campaigns to get women booking preventative medical appointments.

Million Mammogram Challenge

Mindie Kaplan, founder and chief executive officer of female-targeted MaleRoom, whose eight-month-old podcast helps women “get inside the mind of the opposite sex,” has teamed with out-of-home company Outfront Media on the Million Mammogram Challenge, encouraging women to schedule, post and share their exam dates.

Kaplan herself, shown in a photo taken six months after a double mastectomy, stars in outdoor ads, along with the headline, “Cancer Isn’t My Story.” Creative is by Outfront’s internal agency Outfront Studios.

The month-long campaign, coinciding with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is running in New York City -- including a Times Square billboard and in the subways -- and in other unidentified “major metropolitan areas.” The subway ads include a QR code linking to MillionMammogramChallenge.com.

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That site contains a mammogram booking link via the ZocDoc appointments service, and a form in which participants can post the date and time of their exam, along with a message that invites others to come along.

“A significant portion of the media space have been donated by Outfront,” the OOH company’s vice president of marketing Liz Rave tells Marketing Daily.

A third partner -- the nonprofit Imerman Angels, a provider of 1:1 cancer support services -- is joining Outfront and Kaplan in providing social media amplification for the campaign.

Outfront calls the Million Mammogram Challenge a “movement,” and Rave says its aim is to “inspire 1 million people to take part.” As of Wednesday afternoon, when Marketing Daily checked, the website said that 120 mammograms had been scheduled.

Don’t Wait

Online news publication theSkimm has teamed with ZocDoc and the LetsGetChecked telehealth platform to launch “Don’t Wait,” designed to get its readers scheduling often overlooked doctor and therapy appointments.

TheSkimm cites a recent Deloitte study showing that 50% of US women skip or delay medical care due to cost, access, or negative experiences

The initiative is centered around a Don’t Wait page, where users first enter their age range from a drop-down menu to get a list of suggested preventative care appointments. Although theSkimm’s main readership is millennial women, this tool accommodates females from “under 21” to “65+.”

Each suggested appointment includes a link to a related article from theSkimm or another publication, as well as a “book now” button taking them to ZocDoc. Automatically synced calendar reminders then kick in.

Users can also access Skimm Scripts, which theSkimm editor-in-chief Niven McCall-Mazza  tells Marketing Daily are “straightforward instructions on how to navigate important conversations,” such as “things to say at your next OB appointment, what to say when your doctor isn’t listening to you, what to say when an insurance claim is denied.”

“Women often prioritize their family’s health over their own,” McCall-Mazza says. “We really wanted to design a campaign to help them and make their health a priority.”

“Don’t Wait” launched in the lead-up to Oct. 2, which theSkimm plans to turn into an annual “Don’t Wait Day” – “the day I need to prioritize my health and make all of my preventive care appointments,” McCall-Mazza explains. “That’s something women don’t currently do and unfortunately, their health has negative impacts by not doing so.

She says theSkimm is driving people to “Don’t Wait” through its various platforms, which now reach 16 million women, and that its partners have also helped promote the ongoing initiative.

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