In 2010, the superbug MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a type of Staph bacteria found on the skin and in the nose that is resistant to antibiotics, spread through communities across the country and infected news stories with breathtaking and scary facts. More than 90,000 Americans get MRSA infections every year, and in 2005, nearly 19,000 Americans died from MRSA infections. In fact, more deaths are linked to MRSA infections than AIDS.

Experts and leaders agreed it was time to help unlock the mystery of the potentially deadly infection and provide communities with the MRSA prevention resources they needed. The Clorox Company brought experts together and launched Stop MRSA Now, a coalition committed to educating others on how to help reduce the spread of MRSA and deliver easy-to-use and actionable information to consumers through the website StopMRSAnow.org.

The Stop MRSA Now coalition recognized that MRSA is increasingly found in community and youth sports settings. In fact, skin infections like MRSA, which spread through skin-to-skin contact as well as contact with equipment and shared items, are the cause of 56 percent of all outbreaks of infectious diseases in competitive sports in the United States.

In 2010, Stop MRSA Now, in partnership with SwapMeSports.com, teamed up with professional basketball star and MRSA survivor Grant Hill to launch Equip them Well, a program to help teach families and sports teams about practical MRSA prevention steps, such as washing hands and disinfecting sports equipment with a bleach solution. In addition to providing education to parents about MRSA prevention, parents could also collect, disinfect and donate used youth sports equipment through the Equip them Well page on StopMRSANow.org to ensure that kids in need could take part in youth sports.

OBJECTIVES

• Educate parents of children who play sports about how to disinfect sports equipment and properly wash uniforms to help prevent the spread of MRSA
• Demonstrate the need for bleach to prevent the spread of MRSA

STRATEGIES

• Leverage professional athlete, MRSA survivor and parent Grant Hill to communicate messages about disinfecting sports equipment to help prevent the spread of MRSA
• Partner with SwapMeSports.com to facilitate the collecting, disinfecting and donating of sports equipment and create additional awareness about the program through SwapMeSports.com’s youth sports enthusiast audience
• Utilize StopMRSANow.org to house Equip them Well information and create campaign engagement opportunities with parents

EXECUTION

Equip them Well took place through the search engine optimized StopMRSANow.org site, driving parents to the site and working with existing Stop MRSA Now coalition members to participate in the campaign.

Researched and identified equipment exchange partner
• SwapMeSports.com is a free community website that allows parents to buy, sell, trade or donate used sports equipment
• SwapMeSports.com facilitates the donation of equipment to organizations, schools and leagues through its community giving program
Developed the following Equip them Well information on StopMRSAnow.org
• Materials informing parents about how they play a major role in helping to prevent the spread of MRSA (disinfecting with bleach at home and ensuring sports equipment is properly disinfected) and how student athletes can help (laundering their clothing properly and not sharing towels)
• Video encouraging parents and their young athletes to collect, disinfect and donate used sports equipment
• Online sports equipment exchange allowing parents across the United States to collect, disinfect and donate used sports equipment to communities in need
• Sweepstakes offering parents a chance to win a trip to Phoenix for a Suns game and exclusive “meet-and-greet” with Grant Hill to entice parents to visit the site and participate in the campaign
Created a surround-sound approach – leveraging traditional and social media – to drive parents to visit StopMRSANow.org
Traditional
• Conducted media tour with Grant Hill for a blend of consumer and sports-focused media
• Reached out to national print outlets, long-lead publications and other traditional news outlets
• Distributed press release to highlight the campaign and Grant Hill’s role
Social
• Executed an Internet Media Tour (IMT)/Radio Media Tour (RMT) with Grant Hill, targeting mom/parenting and sports blogs, websites and radio outlets
• Worked with mom blogger organization, Blissfully Domestic, to post “Collect. Disinfect. Donate.” video on mom blogger sites
• Tweeted about Equip them Well through the Clorox account and updated the Clorox Facebook page with announcements
• Leveraged SwapMeSports.com’s assets, including website, Facebook and Twitter, to create additional awareness about the campaign

RESULTS

Equip them Well generated 46 million impressions, 5,045 StopMRSANow.org visits and distributed hundreds of donated pieces of disinfected sports equipment to communities in need in two months.

Traditional Media
• Secured Grant Hill media tour interviews with top outlets, including Fox Business, CW11-NY, ABC Sports Radio and SIRUS Satellite Radio
• Sports Illustrated followed Grant Hill on media tour and created mini-documentary “A Pro’s Life,” which featured bleach messaging and was posted on SportsIllustrated.com
• Hartford Magazine featured a three-page spread on the Equip them Well program in its
October issue
Social Media
• Secured Grant Hill IMT interviews with top parenting blogger sites, including Extraordinary Mommy, Empowher, My Mommy Manual, Dad Labs, Parenthood.com, Ask Mom RN, Cinesport, and Healthradio Network
• 105 mom bloggers posted the “Collect. Disinfect. Dontate.” video on their blogs
• Equip them Well posts on the Clorox Facebook page secured 342 “Likes” and 112 comments
Web Analytics
• Sweepstakes generated 846 entries in less than two months
• Visitors spent approximately 2 minutes and 12 seconds on the site, and there were a total of 15,217 page views