Client: Beyond Type 1
Services: Paid Media, Strategy
Closing the Awareness Gap in High-Risk Communities
Published
About Beyond Type 1
Beyond Type 1 is a global organization working to help people living with diabetes not just survive, but thrive. It raises awareness about the condition and puts tools, resources, and community support in the hands of the people who need them most. Reaching the right people is central to that mission, and the hardest people to reach are often the ones at highest risk who aren’t yet looking for help.
For this campaign, Beyond Type 1 wanted to close awareness gaps in communities where Type 2 diabetes risk runs high, and asked VSSL to plan and run the media.
Key Results
1.6M
Total Impressions
2,312
Total QR scans
$18.90
Blended CPM
GOING WHERE THE AWARENESS GAPS ARE
Diabetes awareness isn’t evenly distributed. The communities carrying the highest Type 2 risk are frequently the ones general-audience health messaging reaches last, if it reaches them at all. A national awareness push spread evenly across the map tends to spend the most where the need is lowest.
Beyond Type 1 wanted to flip that. The goal was to put awareness in front of high-risk communities directly, in the places where they already live and move, and to give people something to act on rather than just something to read.
DIGITAL OUT-OF-HOME, TARGETED BLOCK BY BLOCK
VSSL planned a digital out-of-home campaign across three priority markets, Miami, Chicago, and Atlanta, each selected for elevated Type 2 diabetes risk. Within those markets, placements were geo-targeted to concentrate exposure in the neighborhoods where that risk is highest instead of scattering impressions evenly across each city.
The creative was built market by market. Rather than running one national message everywhere, each placement spoke to the city it stood in, with copy like “Diabetes Rates Are Rising in Atlanta” anchoring the message to the people walking past it. And every placement carried a QR code that took passersby straight to a risk-assessment tool and educational resources. That turned a passive street-level impression into an actionable moment: someone could go from seeing the message to assessing their own risk in a few seconds, without waiting to get home or remember a URL.
EFFICIENT MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT ABOVE THE BENCHMARK
The campaign ran a 30-day flight across December and January. It delivered well within the projected CPM range at a $18.90 blended CPM, and it generated QR engagement that far exceeded what an awareness-focused buy typically produces.
The 2,312 scans are the number worth sitting with. QR interaction on out-of-home is usually a rounding error, because acting on a billboard means stopping, pulling out a phone, and choosing to engage with a brand that interrupted your day. Against 1.6 million impressions, the scan volume reflects an interaction rate well above what a standard awareness campaign produces. Hyper-local targeting and city-specific creative did that work: when the message names your city and the action is one scan away, more people take it.
For any organization trying to reach a specific audience in specific places, and to convert attention into a real next step rather than just a view, a geo-targeted DOOH buy with a clear action built in can do both at once. Just ask us how.
“We came into this with ambitious targets, and VSSL delivered beyond what we thought was possible. Smart market selection, compelling creative, and efficient media buying got real resources into the hands of people who needed them.”
Benjamin Smith, Director of Digital Marketing, Beyond Type 1
