Better World Advertising

Diabetes prevalence in New York State has doubled since 1994 and is expected to grow; 1.8 million New Yorkers suffer from diabetes and 4.5 million have prediabetes.

To address this crisis, the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) invested in a $35 million diabetes campaign with the goal of reversing the epidemic. The NYHealth Diabetes Campaign focuses on improving clinical care and patient outcomes; mobilizing communities to prevent diabetes and support diabetes self-management; and promoting policies that sustain comprehensive and effective care for people with diabetes. To elevate the importance of addressing the diabetes epidemic among key stakeholders, NYHealth funded Better World Advertising (BWA) to create a social marketing campaign to motivate health care providers and faith-based organizations to implement interventions known to improve diabetes care and outcomes.

With this grant, Better World Advertising will create a platform to advance with urgency the goals set forth by the Campaign and activate providers and community- and faith-based organizations to implement interventions known to improve diabetes care and outcomes. Primary care physicians are the focus of the clinical campaign because they are the primary source of care for patients with diabetes. The social marketing campaign will target the approximately 13,000 internists and family practice physicians who have not been recognized for achieving quality diabetes outcomes. Faith-based organizations were selected as the first target of the social marketing campaign because there are existing Statewide and regional networks that have large numbers of congregations in their membership. Faith-based organizations are trusted sources of information and activity in their communities and, if they are motivated and supported, they can influence their membership to become involved in the Campaign.