The Vision
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color in the United States with Black and Latinx people being at greater risk of getting, being hospitalized for, and dying of COVID-19. Ensuring that these communities are represented in clinical trial data is critical in developing the life saving tools and medicines for those who need them most.
The Challenge
The Gates Medical Research Institute (MRI) engaged Provoc to help accelerate its first ever US-based clinical trial recruitment among Black and Latinx communities to test the efficacy of a potential COVID-19 treatment that might save lives. Gates MRI is dedicated to developing new lifesaving tools and medicines for those who need them most, and had been actively targeting participants for a COVID-19 clinical trial enrollment. They utilized a high-cost Facebook campaign, but unsuccessfully recruited diverse populations among those most impacted. Their goal was to increase the proportion of Black and Latinx participants within their target enrollment of 600 people total.
Our Approach
To encourage and increase recruitment and participation among Black and Latinx people, we utilized a variety of strategies. We developed a uniquely targeted narrative and messaging content strategy, launched a new digital marketing campaign, actively iterated, and measured performance. We engaged and supported a network of community-based affiliates, including the National Urban League, to disseminate information, educate, engage, and recruit target audiences in key locations across the country, to increase awareness of the study among these underrepresented populations, and to help address and alleviate health-related misinformation and concerns.
Recruiting individuals directly from social media required a mobile first design approach to the campaign landing website.
Social media graphics were actively iterated to adjust the campaign in real time to achieve better results rooted in data analysis.
Results so far
Our recruitment efforts generated 3,059 sign-ups of interested Black and Latinx participants of whom 1,302 were study eligible. We rapidly and collaboratively delivered capacity to help diversify the study recruitment, and enrolled 3x higher proportions of non-white persons as compared to prior recruitment efforts.
Upon conclusion of the study, we not only succeeded in reaching a higher proportion of Black and Latinx participants who were eligible signups, but also achieved a lower overall cost per enrollee as compared to prior benchmarks. We proposed and optimized content and copy to help the Gates MRI team motivate and convert their core audiences, which proved effective in achieving key recruitment goals. Understanding the needs and motivations of these particular audiences was key to a successful outcome, as well as enhancing relationships with community-based organizations who were eager to help.
