Challenge
Merck was announcing their signature initiative program, Merck for Mothers, in 2011, which was focused on the battle against global maternal mortality. Merck committed $500 million over 10 years to help create a world where no woman dies giving life. Ruder Finn, which has been with the program since inception, designed and developed the public website, which has had several redesigns and relaunches in that span. The Merck program continues beyond 10 years at this point.
Approach
To announce the signature initiative program at the United Nations in 2011, Ruder Finn developed the public facing website, highlighting the issue, Merck’s commitment to the maternal mortality, and the company’s earlier partnership with NGOs. We also developed a mirror public site for MSD for Mothers (how Merck is known outside U.S./Canada) as well as an intranet page for employee ambassadors. Throughout the program campaign, the site has had a few significant redesigns for both brand/look as well as content approach. For the ten-year program anniversary, Ruder Finn developed many site features including: accepting award submissions for organizations to submit their entry for the first Kenneth C. Frazier Award for Maternal Health Equity, a ‘Pass the Stork’ social campaign, and an interactive webpage titled “A Decade of Inspired Progress” to highlight the milestones that have been achieved in the past ten years.
Result
• 53 submissions from organizations around the world were submitted for the Kenneth C. Frazier Award for Maternal Health Equity. The program was so well received that it is now an annual investment. It is currently in the process of selecting the 2023 recipient with 159 entries this year.
• “A Decade of Inspired Progress” had over 1,200 page views during the anniversary week.
• #PasstheStork was used in over 300 mentions across social platforms.
• The virtual anniversary event featuring speakers from the WHO, UNFPA and U.S. Congress with over 1,000 global attendees from the public, private and non-profit sector.
