The Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), Data to Care, Implementation, and Evaluation (PrIDE) project was conducted to increase PrEP awareness of racial/ethnic, sexual, and gender minorities through social marketing in 12 jurisdictions (Marshall et al., 2022). While the resulting data confirmed enhanced PrEP awareness among the minorities, social marketing strategies were also tested using cluster evaluation approach. The paper’s objectives are to identify key discoveries across a cluster of six funded recipients of the PrIDE project; derive practical strategies and lessons learned for future HIV media campaigns; present individual media evaluations performed in the project. The evaluation unveiled several valuable findings regarding the proper ways to conduct such campaigns. For instance, while designing social marketing projects for the described minorities, it is insightful to disaggregate data for each minority group to discover potential differences in the effect of the media campaigns among them.
The main concepts and points of the article are connected with HIV prevention and major findings that have been captured from the PrIDE evaluation. Firstly, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is one of the most recent HIV prevention tools dedicated to individuals who are highly exposed to the virus. Secondly, the PrIDE project is a marketing campaign aimed to spread awareness about HIV and PrEP. Finally, the main point regarding the research findings is that population engagement and media dissemination for minorities is crucial in such social marketing campaigns.
In addition, the project stands out with its complex and multidimensional evaluation system. The process and outcomes of the campaign have been assessed with local evaluations of quantitative and qualitative data and a cluster evaluation approach (Marshall et al., 2022). The cluster approach includes cross-validating groups of similar programs to identify context and insights related to major marketing strategies that are evaluated and implemented by the representatives of the jurisdictions (Marshall et al., 2022). Consequently, this approach relies on collaboration and the high quality of the documents to ensure the correctness of the overall assessment (Gross, 2018).
The PrIDE proved to produce increased awareness among the minority, but it also derived practical implications and strategies for further projects in this field (Marshall et al., 2022). The most important evaluation practice is engaging members of the segmented population during the media campaign development to ensure that the content is culturally appropriate (Marshall et al., 2022). Another procedure involves developing campaigns for different population segments since their preferred media choice may differ (Marshall et al., 2022). Finally, as social media is constantly changing, it is reasonable for public health figures to consistently engage with minorities to understand their changing social communication preferences better (Marshall et al., 2022).
Even though the project has produced many practical implications for further research, it has certain limitations. The first limitation is embedded in the initial differences among some marketing campaigns in the study, which may have distorted the evaluation results to some degree (Marshall et al., 2022). It highlights the importance of ensuring that all the funding recipients are on the same page in terms of using the same data collection sources or agreeing on similar media strategies at the beginning. The second limitation is connected with the short lifetime of the campaign. Quite limited funding and time pressure have prevented the jurisdictions from acquiring much of the additional data about possible long-term results of the project, like PrEP uptake or PrEP demand.
However, despite the limitations, I am confident that the project has built the foundation for further research and agree with the article and its conclusions. It is essential to apply segmentation to the population correctly and ensure that the features of minorities are acknowledged while designing a social marketing campaign (Veríssimo et al., 2018). Also, it has produced a valuable statement that the proper assessment of the marketing campaign means evaluating both the process and results. Regarding the future direction for research, it may be long-term social marketing campaigns that can shed some light on the effect of PrIDE in the long run. Another option for further research is to focus on one specific minority segment at a time to identify their social media features more precisely.
References
Gross, J. M. (2018). Document analysis. In B. B. Frey (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of educational research, measurement, and evaluation (pp. 545–548). Web.
Marshall, B., Salabarria-Pena, Y., Johnson, W., & Moore, L. (2022). Reaching racial/ethnic and sexual and gender minorities with HIV prevention information via social marketing. Evaluation and Program Planning, 90. Web.
Veríssimo, D., Bianchessi, A., Arrivillaga, A., Cadiz, F. C., Mancao, R., Green, K. (2018). Does it work for biodiversity? Experiences and challenges in the evaluation of social marketing campaigns. Social Marketing Quarterly, 24(1), 18-34.