Situation

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved use of various medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to combat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), including buprenorphine. The FDA has also issued comprehensive prescribing rules which, when combined with counseling and behavioral therapies, provides a whole-patient approach to opioid dependency. When taken as prescribed, buprenorphine is safe and effective.

While the number of opioid-related deaths in Maryland’s Montgomery County are consistently below national and statewide numbers, 106 overdose deaths occurred in the county in 2017 alone, prompting the county’s Local Behavioral Health Authority (LBHA) to take a fresh look at public outreach.

Our Strategic Approach

BWF worked with the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a PSA-based public education campaign that would help local consumers, caregivers, and providers better understand the benefits and risks of buprenorphine. BWF then developed and delivered a field campaign around those PSAs that included a variety of tactics and touch points, including:

• A promotional kit for providers that took the form of an oversized pill bottle containing a flash drive with the PSA.

• A spot campaign on DC-area television stations boosted by conversion of the PSA into :15 and :30 audio for DC-area radio use.

• A geo-targeted campaign on Facebook.

• A press release to area reporters.

Results

BWF’s PSA ran on numerous broadcast television stations, cable systems, and radio stations including both NBC and CBS affiliates, independents, the county’s information channel, the region’s primary headline-news outlet, and eight more radio outlets representing the urban, country, and pop subcategories. Comcast Digital TV delivered more than 77,000 streaming impressions, while Facebook ads reached 74,000 people with a total of 175,281 impressions.