March of Dimes

Opportunity

North Carolina experienced suffered from the nation’s highest incidence of children born with spina bifida and other neural tube birth defects. A proven way to decrease this problem was convince women of childbearing age to begin taking folic acid before they became pregnant. Unfortunately there was low awareness of this issue among young women and there were few funds available to invest in marketing.

Implementation

Crittenden OFM began working with the NC March of Dimes, the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the NC Folic Acid Council to address this issue. We began by defining the objectives of the communications program and developing a unified message, look, voice and direction for the program. Individual strategies and initiatives were developed for the different target audiences. Careful planning and coordination helped keep production costs at a minimum and the power of the creative provided additional leverage to help spread this important message. 

Results

Working in concert with grassroots and healthcare professionals efforts, our communications program helped reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in western North Carolina by 80%. The program has been able to obtain additional funding and was expanded to address other prenatal issues.