CASE STUDY
A fentanyl awareness and education campaign produced for the Sacramento County Department of Health, Substance Use Prevention and Treatment division.
Campaign Dates: April - May, 2023
Our Role: Branding, campaign strategy, content creation, end-to-end video services, website design, social media launch, strategy, management, and reporting.
Summary
We collaborated with the Sacramento County Department of Health Services, Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Services (SUPT), to develop a fentanyl awareness campaign for distribution across both traditional and social media channels to educate the public about the dangers of illicit fentanyl use, harm reduction, and to direct individuals to treatment services. Campaign success was measured by tracking reach, video views, engagement, engagement rate, post link clicks, impressions, and website visits.
Starting from scratch, we created the Safer Sacramento brand, built a new website, launched new social media channels, and crafted downloadable content, explainer video content, and more. Once these elements were complete, we designed, executed, managed, and tracked the campaign, which included dozens of videos and over 72 pieces of static content, including billboards and transit stop posters. The campaign, which ran from April 17th to May 31st, 2023, was a resounding success.
CHALLENGES
Creating this campaign was a challenge. In addition to navigating the inevitable bureaucratic hurdles of working with a county agency, we had to develop everything from scratch, as no digital infrastructure was in place before launching the campaign. We built the Safer Sacramento website, established relevant social media channels, crafted the strategy, prepared and managed video shoots, planned, executed, managed, and tracked the social media campaign, all while ensuring our clients' satisfaction. Furthermore, our timeline was tight – we had only 2 months to pull it off.
Additionally, some content was blocked from being boosted across social channels due to its sensitive nature. Though we submitted requests for review and appeals, not all posts were allowed to be boosted. This undoubtedly lowered our final social media metrics, but did not prevent us from reaching our goals. You can clearly see below in the samples which content was blocked by the social media algorithms.
The campaign launch date was April 17, 2023, two weeks prior to National Fentanyl Awareness Day on May 9. We made it happen through teamwork, communication, and passion.
Insights
Successful social media campaigns require big-picture strategic planning, consistency, patience, and high-quality content that audiences can connect with on an emotional level. The moment we filmed our first interviews, we knew this campaign was going to be unlike any other addressing the fentanyl crisis. Not a day went by during production that tears weren’t shed. The raw and brutally honest stories that individuals shared struck at the heart of both the issue at hand and the human condition: love, loss, deception, betrayal, grief, and the struggle to find a path forward after experiencing loss. Upon returning to the editing suite, we worked tirelessly to prepare this content with a keen recognition that we had a duty to share these stories with the world to prevent fentanyl from claiming another victim.
5.6K+ post link clicks
343K+ TikTok video views
32K+ engagements
7.8% engagement rate
(1%-3% is considered good)
412K+ impressions
15K+ website page views
Results
We launched the Fentanyl Awareness Campaign across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok. We strategically staggered video content with static educational posts, balancing and intertwining storytelling with research-based content. Now, when you scroll the feeds, you can’t help but see the headlines pop between the video content. Our call-to-action directed audiences to the Safer Sacramento website to learn more about the dangers of fentanyl, watch more stories, and find support and treatment services. We boosted content on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, with special focus on reaching younger audiences.
AWARDS
We received three awards at the 8th Annual Shorty Awards in Los Angeles for our Safer Sacramento Fentanyl Awareness Campaign: Silver Honor in Multi-Platform Campaign, Bronze Honor in Call to Action, Audience Honor in Call to Action.
