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PFIZER'S BOSTON HEART PARTY™
Focusing Increased Attention on Matters of the Heart
Each year, nearly 500,000 women lose their lives to cardiovascular disease (CVD) disease. The Pfizer Boston Heart Party™ is a cardiovascular screening and awareness campaign, which seeks to spread the core messages about the threat of CVD and Pfizer’s role in preventing and treating it to women, physicians, and institutions. Partners Healthcare and CareGroup Healthcare System, the two largest integrated delivery systems in Massachusetts, are the lead partnering organizations in The Boston Heart Party™.
SM& team members have worked on the campaign since 2000, and SM& has been The Boston Heart Party™’s agency of record since 2003. Each year, the campaign presents a host of challenges; from facilitating collaboration among Boston Heart Party™ sponsors’ member hospitals, many of which are competing institutions; to countering the media’s skepticism about pharmaceutical companies; to raising awareness in a competitive landscape (with prominent organizations like the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute also planning major CVD awareness events); to looking for valuable new partners and nourishing important relationships with Pfizer; and devising creative approaches to garnering substantial stories rather than listings alone.
Each year, we develop a strategy to increase coverage and participation in screenings. Over the years our campaign has included an aggressive media relations program; a geographic expansion; and the development of a new initiative with restaurants designed to deepen the reach of the campaign through the community by promoting heart healthy menu items in more than 50 restaurants. We also position our team as a support network for participating doctors, communicating our availability for media training and talking points, which helps build a key relationship for our client (physicians play a critical role in the planning and promoting of The Boston Heart Party™ by helping to inform patients about screenings and serving as sources for media).
In the campaign’s most recent year, we generated over 19 million media impressions. More than 5,400 people were screened for CVD, bringing the campaign total to over 30,000. Through use of alternative media placements, we were able to drive more visitors to The Boston Heart Party™ website and reach new audiences with our messages.
