Reaching Underserved Communities

Gilead Sciences wanted to ensure that Truvada for PrEP, a pill that can prevent HIV, reached the communities that needed it most.

Situation

New HIV infections are on the decline, but we’re still a long way from ending the epidemic — especially in the US South, the new epicenter of the HIV crisis, and among African American and Latino men who have sex with men (MSMs), African American women, and transgender people. In 2012, Gilead released Truvada for PrEP, a pill that can prevent HIV, but not enough people — especially in those key, disproportionately affected communities — know about it, or about their risk status and sexual health options generally.

Approach

Gilead’s goal was to ensure that anyone who might benefit from PrEP had the information they needed to initiate a conversation about HIV prevention with their healthcare provider. Precision conducted a comprehensive audit of HIV stakeholders, including leading advocates and healthcare professionals. We then created a roadmap for outreach to impacted communities, which included recommending a TV advertising campaign for Truvada — the first in its history — and dramatically expanding Gilead’s influencer outreach, as well as expanding support options like online chat features for people seeking information about PrEP.

Solution

Over the summer of 2018, we put the roadmap into practice. We supported the rollout of a multi-million dollar TV advertising campaign, paired with a surround-sound campaign to amplify the ads to key audiences through online influencers. We’re continuing this work as we expand our outreach efforts into major influencer, earned, and social media campaigns to raise awareness around the patient access programs Gilead provides for PrEP. As a result of our successful work on Truvada for PrEP, Gilead named Precision as agency of record for all of their social responsibility work — a philanthropic portfolio that earned them the title #1 most charitable company in the US by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.