Gilead, a biopharmaceutical company, is leading innovation to stop the transmission of HIV and AIDS globally. For its 2024 campaign – a critical year with elections across the EU – Gilead had three main goals:

• Continue raising visibility and advocating around the importance of testing, treating and innovative prevention in ending HIV transmission to policymakers at both the EU and national levels in Europe
• Ensure investment in testing, prevention, treatment and innovation remain top of mind within key healthcare policymakers and stakeholders during the 2024-29 mandate
• Establish powerful message retention via a steady drumbeat of messaging around the challenges that still remain

Our research (https://www.politico.eu/media-solutions-democracy-spotlight/) shows that policymakers seek corporate engagement on key issues, particularly during a voting year. “What [businesses] provide is important anecdotal examples to help you see a particular point,” says Barry Andrews, MEP for Dublin. Or as Thomas Gensemer, chief strategy officer at Public Policy Holding Company, put it: “This [policymaker] audience is looking for anecdotes about the factory down the street or the employee in their district to help make the macro policy debates tangible.” The 2024 election super year, when democracy is squarely in the spotlight, was the perfect time for Gilead to get policymakers to champion life-saving innovations in HIV by hearing from the people who would be most impacted.

To make these individual voices and experiences the most powerful — and move policymakers to act — we decided to take a highly visual and emotional approach.

We kicked off the campaign pre-elections with a video (https://www.politico.eu/sponsored-content/from-stigma-to-support/) featuring Mario Cascio, who, at 71, has lived with HIV for more than 40 years. He spoke about medical treatments that saved his life, the emerging challenges older HIV patients face, and his journey to become an advocate. Rather than summarizing his story, which would reduce the emotional impact, we zoomed in on a few key stories, triggered by objects he brought from home: a snapshot of his wife, an espresso cup that made him aware of self-stigmatization… The set up was simply — in a bare studio with a camera focused on his face — while images linked to his memories were projected across him and the backdrop. An article accompanying the video elaborates on Mario’s appeal for political commitment, investment and innovation to improve the wellbeing of people living with HIV and end new infections by 2030

Following the elections, we launched a photo essay (https://www.politico.eu/sponsored-content/every-life-matters/) which similarly featured profiles that are often overlooked in conversations about HIV. After significant research, our producer and photographer team identified and gained the trust of two people living with HIV for our piece: Andréa Mestre, a straight woman and mother of three living in France, and Oğuzhan Nuh, a Turkish immigrant who journeyed through Europe to find a safe space. Built around their personal stories and intimate images from their daily life, the piece also carried a strong call to action for the newly elected governments: While Europe could be the first region to end HIV by 2030, policies that overlook the needs of vulnerable communities are blocking progress, and policymakers must continue to prioritize the eradication of HIV.

We wrapped up the year with a premium feature article (https://www.politico.eu/sponsored-content/staying-strong-in-the-home-stretch-how-to-win-the-fight-against-hiv/) published for World AIDS Day, 1 December. The article highlighted findings from BCG research commissioned by Gilead that uncovered insights and best practices from high-income countries that have achieved significant progress in eradicating HIV. We leveraged stories from the video and photo essay to make the report findings more engaging and tangible.

We promoted the content online and in-person for maximum impact.

Online, the campaign ran across platforms, targeting EU policymakers and health influencers: on domain on POLITICO.eu; on POLITICO Studio social (X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), both paid and organic; and programmatic (Google Display Network, including YouTube). In the second half of the year, we struggled with promotion of the photo essay on programmatic due to new rules around the subject matter (“personal health”) and had to double down on other social platforms, in particular Instagram, to make up for the lost impressions. Instagram was the perfect platform for such a visual, personal campaign.

Gilead also sponsored POLITICO’s Health Care Summit, which gathered policymakers and other stakeholders gathered in Brussels in November. Here we leveraged the stories and images from our photo essay to create a six-panel photo exhibit (each panel 90cm x 2m), highly visible near the entrance to the event. This gave Gilead the most impact for their investment while allowing them to stand out on the day and steer their conversations with policymakers and healthcare influencers. Our research (to be published later this month) shows that direct engagement with policy makers is the most effective tactic for communication, so this element of the campaing was pivotal.

Overall campaign performance highlights:

• 1,9M+ impressions delivered across POLITICO.eu
• 27,1K+ clicks delivered throughout the entire campaign
• 147,5K+ video views on POLITICO.eu and social media
• 21,7K+ reads generated for the 3 campaign elements
• 81.56% average viewability across all the placements (industry benchmark 69%)

The video performed exceptionally well, accumulating 94k views total views on POLITICO.eu, with click through 4x benchmark. The full video was watched until the end 56k+ times, corresponding to a 59% completion rate of the video. This indicates strong audience engagement and retention, reinforcing the effectiveness of video storytelling in the campaign.

The photo essay also served as a powerful tool, with nearly 4m average time spent on page. Gilead was also thrilled with the exhibit at the Health Care Summit, which hosted 350 attendees, nearly a quarter from government and 67% senior level, and helped reinforce Gilead’s thought leadership and engagement with key stakeholders.

The response to our wrap-up article around World AIDS Day was also fantastic, with 7900+ reads, or 40% over benchmark.

Internally, this was the campaign our team was most proud of at the end of the year, and they shared it widely on their own social accounts.

From stigma to support: Ending HIV in Europe by 2030

Every Life Matters

We wanted our campaign to feel native to POLITICO and grounded in credible insights, so we leveraged POLITICO’s newsroom to create the special podcast series. As sponsor, Gilead was positioned as an expert elevating the discussion on eradicating HIV transmission in Europe.

The series launched at the end of June 2023 with episodes dropping weekly. The first episode brought listeners behind the bars of French prison successfully tackling the spread of HIV, the second episode focused on HIV stigma and criminalization, while the third focused on the race for a cure.

After the newsroom’s episodes hooked our audience with independent insights and built familiarity with the latest challenges surrounding HIV, a final episode produced by POLITICO Studio brought in an expert from Gilead and zoomed in on innovations (Gilead’s core topic), while still maintaining an editorial tone. Hosted by a veteran journalist (and longtime volunteer with HIV organizations), we spoke with a professor of infectious diseases in Italy, a professor of psychology who has been living with HIV for decades, and a member of the European Parliament from Spain – just as Spain was starting its presidency of the Council of the European Union. It was a rare coup to get an active policymaker’s involvement in a branded piece.

At the end of the year, around World AIDS Day (1 December), POLITICO Studio launched written content – a Q&A (one of our most popular formats) with a Gilead stakeholder and an article exploring the transformative impact of PReP drugs. This variety in formats helped us reach a bigger audience and strengthen brand recognition.

Episode 1: https://www.politico.eu/podcast/from-cell-to-cell-eliminating-hiv-in-prisons/

Episode 2: https://www.politico.eu/podcast/the-last-bastion-of-stigma-criminalizing-hiv-transmission/

Episode 3: https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/eu-confidential/new-eu-confidential-in-focus-podcast-episode-a-cure-for-hiv-when-will-europe-get-there/

Episode 4: https://www.politico.eu/podcast/end-epidemic-innovation-eradicate-hiv-aids/

Q&A (‘Ending HIV in the EU’): https://www.politico.eu/sponsored-content/qa-ending-hiv-in-the-eu/

Article (‘Transforming HIV prevention in Europe’): https://www.politico.eu/sponsored-content/transforming-hiv-prevention-in-europe/

One of the toughest challenges in podcasts is building an audience. We circumvented this by embedding our episodes directly into the feed of POLITICO Europe’s main podcast show, EU Confidential. This meant that the episodes surfaced automatically to subscribers on their preferred podcast platform. Called “EU Confidential: In Focus,” the series was also promoted to subscribers of Telescope, POLTICO’s newsletter investigating the AIDS epidemic that Gilead had sponsored the previous two years. Further promoting brand awareness, Gilead also sponsored the regular EU Confidential podcast during the weeks that the In Focus series ran.

The last editorial podcast was recorded live in front of an audience in POLITICO’s offices. This custom event allowed Gilead to have a tangible, intimate connection with their target audience. Gilead had opening remarks, kicking off the discussion with their expert point of view.

POLITICO Studio’s content was amplified through multiple channels, including Twitter, Facebook and onsite (using contextual targeting to reach active readers of our health care section), to guarantee and maximize reach. Meanwhile 2x sponsorships of our Morning Health Care newsletter guaranteed that Gilead’s messaging landed directly in the inbox of influential individuals. The first sponsorship aligned with the release of our podcast series, while the second sponsorship was during Brussels’ busy ‘Back To School’ period in September. With a steady drip of content from June through the end of the year, our always-on campaign kept Gilead’s messaging constantly in the minds of our audience.