Working with Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care has been an amazing experience. The genesis for the IDN campaign really emerged from a very early phone call we had with Chris Buchner (Regional Director of Prevention for VCH). Everyone on the call with Chris was struck with just how much has changed with HIV testing, treatment and survival. It didn’t take long for us to realize that most people’s perception of HIV hadn’t changed much since we all saw a very tragic Tom Hanks in “Philadelphia” (circa 1993). We believed that our clients had some very valuable information to share, and all we really had to do was break through and present a simple update on all the important changes about the disease.

“It’s Different Now” just felt right for the pitch. What we didn’t know was that this was the language our clients had been using internally for a while and that the concept made a lot of sense to them right from the beginning. Our mission evolved to crafting effective messages and coming up with a look and feel that would overcome the stigma associated with HIV and find cost effective ways to spread the word. The end result is a function of true team effort. Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care have been very gracious in guiding us through the health care review and approval process, they provided essential course correction when needed and let us have our creative way where we felt the campaign needed it. The multi-channel approach fits with the target audience and budget requirements and we think the results will be fantastic. Early indications are that people understand what we are trying to do, are not disconnecting from the topic and are really engaging with the campaign content. We couldn’t ask for a better outcome.

www.facebook.com/itsdifferentnow.org
www.twitter.com/IDN_YVR
www.itsdifferentnow.org