There were some changes around our office this November, and not just because of our rebrand to Agility PR Solutions. No, the office was also forced to endure many of our staff members flaunting their brand-new moustaches (no matter how horrible), in support of Movember.
November has indeed come to be marked by the moustache, as the Movember campaign leads many to grow their ‘staches in support of men’s health. But it’s not just about growing assorted facial hair – the Movember campaign also aims to increase awareness around various men’s health issues each year.
So Agility PR Solutions used its media monitoring and analysis software to track the year-over-year success of recent Movember campaigns run by the Movember Foundation in the U.S.
Year-over-year analysis of Movember Campaigns
This year the Movember Foundation fared well, earning a little more than 4,000 mentions in online news sources during all of November — good for a 16 per cent year-over-year increase.
But 2016 was not the most successful media year for the annual caterpillar-cultivating initiative; in 2014, mentions of Movember appeared in 5,251 online articles, 24 per cent more than this year.
This jump in coverage could have been a result of a huge increase in people registering for Movember in 2014. According to the foundations’ annual report over 700,000 more people registered in 2014 than in the previous year.
But this year’s campaign was no slouch, earning the second-highest number of articles over the past four years. So we dug deeper to determine which campaign messages were most successful this year and which fell flat.
Key message analysis
From September 1 to November 30, the Movember Foundation pushed out four press releases. This year’s campaign was focused on mental health and suicide prevention, with key messages such as “suicide notes talk too late”; by analyzing key messages from these releases, we identified which ones got the most traction in the media.
The message that Movember is “the only global charity focused solely on men’s health” appeared most often, with 356 mentions. This was followed by “connect with Movember”, with 204 mentions, which asked people to engage with the campaign through twitter, Facebook or other social media channels.
“Making connections” received the third-most mentions. This key message first appeared in the Foundation’s September 13 press release, and was used to announce its partnership with the Prevention Institute in funding 16 mental health organizations.
Most of the remaining top messages were related to a September 6 release in advance of World Suicide Prevention Day. The release announced the Movember Foundation’s new campaign video and contained the messages “suicide notes talk too late”, #WSPD (World Suicide Prevention Day), “too many men are ‘toughing it out’”, and “#WeNeedtoTalk”.
Messages that didn’t fare as well in online media included “Mo Bros and Mo Sistas”, “allows us to foster conversations and positive change”, and “our 2016 partners share our vision”.
News release pickup analysis
But which individual release sent out by the foundation was most successful, in terms of disseminating key messages to the media?
The September release mentioned earlier accounted for 47 per cent of all of this year’s key messages picked up in online news. Similarly, a November release detailed in the chart below accounted for 36 per cent of the key message mentions, meaning just two releases accounted for nearly 85 per cent of this year’s key message pickup.
Knowing which messages resonated with the press this year — and, just as crucially, which flopped — will allow the Movember Foundation to arm itself with the most relevant data when it concocts its new messages and releases for next year’s campaign.
Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Learn from your mistakes and your successes, and build a bigger and better and more impactful campaign. Need help? Have Agility PR Solutions’ analysts do the leg work for you.
