Merck

Merck Sharp & Dohme wanted to bring their American multi-stakeholder cancer advocacy campaign Hope From Within and localize it for the Philippine audience. Merck’s goal as a company has always been to bring innovation to the forefront of healthcare, bringing medicine and quality treatment more accessible to people, and this goal is prevalent across borders. In the Philippines, cancer affects thousands of Filipinos every year, placing an immense burden on patients and their families. Merck intends to alleviate this burden and systematically change the face of disease care by advocating for cancer prevention, much like how breast cancer is initially treated by advocating for tests and routine checkups. Merck aims to introduce an alternative to chemotherapy called Immunotherapy—Immunotherapy works by strengthening the body’s immune system and weaponizes the body to fight cancer internally. It addresses a wide body of cancers including, such as lung cancer, melanoma, head and neck, gastric, bladder, and Hodgkin lymphoma types. The most crucial step of this treatment is its first, and the campaign was developed to create an ironclad foundation that will support a quadmedia approach to generate awareness nationwide.

I created the brand identity and planned the content marketing strategy for this 360 campaign, developing posts and videos to spread awareness on cancer testing and immunotherapy, featuring Hope From Within brand ambassador and former actor Diego Castro. From 2016-2018, the advocacy focused on building awareness and community engagement. It facilitated and participated in various fora that tackled challenges of cancer patients and explored opportunities to redefine cancer care through multi-sectoral collaboration and policy development. The advocacy highlighted in its campaign that access to breakthrough treatments can give new hope for suffering patients and their loved ones, and for them to be reminded that cancer is no longer a death sentence.

In less than two years, Hope From Within’s Facebook page also achieved an impressive reach of 10 million unique users while accumulating a notable 678,000 engagements. The page drove sustained public interest in improving access to care for cancer patients. 

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