Background

Since its establishment in 2000, the Michael J. Fox Foundation has become one of America’s best known health advocacy organizations. By leveraging Fox’s considerable name recognition and public goodwill into funding for experimental Parkinson’s Disease research, the organization has made inroads towards subsidizing cutting-edge treatments. One of the Fox Foundation’s newest tools is the Fox Trial Finder (FTF), which uses algorithms to match Parkinson’s patients and healthy control groups with clinical trials.

Objectives

  • Promote the launch of Fox Trial Finder in Austria, Italy, Germany and Spain
  • Coordinate launch events with centers participating in FTF
  • Leverage Parkinson’s Awareness Month

Strategy & Implementation

Many people had been unaware of the extent to which the Foundation has been active in Europe. With the launch of FTF in Italy, Spain, Austria and Germany – the team sought to use this opportunity to impress the extent and reach of the Foundations activities outside of the US, particularly Europe. In each of the target countries, Halsin set out a media plan with local team members ensuring that cultural differences around the perception of Parkinsons and participation in clinical trials were appropriately respected. By utizilng expert voices to speak on the topic of current research advances and the importance of clinical trial enrollment, the teams were able to organize a press conference at the University Hospital in Barcelona and a televised interview at the Parkinson Institute of Milano for World Parkinson’s Day.

Impact

  • 64 media hits in all key markets – most placements in Italy and Spain
  • Features in leading daily newspapers (including online) La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera and “ABC”
  • Over 2,700 visits to the FTF website in each of the countries on dates of media hits
  • Over 90 registrants cited media as their learning of Fox Trial Finder (out of 305 self-reported responses from 1,313 records)
  • Media highlights include Spain press conference at the University Hospital in Barcelona and an interview at the Parkinson Institute of Milano for World Parkinson’s Day with RAI TV