Debbie's Dream
MEDIA RELATIONS AND SOCIAL MARKETING
CHALLENGE
Help Raise Awareness About the Need for Minority Bone Marrow Donors in the Sacramento Region and Across the Nation
Perry Communications Group was contacted by capitol community members who needed help. A co-worker, Debbie Meador, had been recently diagnosed with Leukemia and needed to find a marrow donor to have the best chance at survival. According to the National Marrow Donor Program and Sacramento’s BloodSource only one-sixth of the marrow registry consists of minorities, including African American’s such as Debbie. Perry Communications Group recognized the importance of this issue and immediately began working with the “Debbie’s Dream” campaign team to raise awareness and find a donor for Debbie Meador.
SOLUTION
Hold High Profile Events to Enroll People in the Marrow Registry, Attract Media Exposure and Raise Awareness of the Need for Minority Donors
Perry Communications Group held initial meetings with “Debbie’s Dream” team to discuss their current efforts and their goals for education and outreach. The team had already started to plan two drives, but needed help to secure media to reach out to a broader audience. With limited time before the first event, Perry Communications Group secured event announcements and articles in the Capitol Morning Report and Capitol Weekly, two publications read widely by Sacramento and capitol insiders.
With the success of the first drive, the second one to be held at the California State Capitol became a priority for the Perry Communications Group team. A major press conference was planned at the State Capitol prior to the drive to generate media attention and spread the word to the community about the upcoming drive. Perry Communications Group and the “Debbie’s Dream” team worked together to secure State Senator Dave Cox and former State Senator Jackie Speier as hosts for the event and worked with Blood Source to find additional patients who were on the waiting list for a marrow match. The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento’s largest newspaper), KFBK-AM 1530 (Sacramento’s largest news-talk radio station) and the Capitol Television News Service (the broadcast feed for all California TV stations without a Capitol bureau) were all scheduled to attend. After some encouragement from the Senators, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also attended the event. Immediately upon determining that the Governor would be in attendance, Perry Communications Group secured KCRA-TV (NBC), KXTV-TV (ABC), Univision and KGO radio to cover the press conference. Many of these stations ran the story the day of the press conference, plus they followed through with additional stories on the day of the drive.
RESULT
More Than 600 People Were Registered on the National Marrow Registry and More Than One Million Heard the Need for Minority Donors
- More than 600 people registered to be on the National Marrow Registry at the two Sacramento events, about half were minorities.
- More than 1.7 million impressions made with stories airing on television, the radio and in newspapers and industry publications.
- Perry Communications Group also used its resources to create a Web site for “Debbie’s Dream”www.debsdream.org and was able to raise more than $5,000 to help defray the cost of registering donors on the registry ($53 for each non-minority donor).
- Perry Communications Group continues to work on this project, raising public awareness through media and community outreach.
