Challenge: Every 10 years, the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy (JMFT) — the flagship journal of The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) — releases a Decade in Review special issue. The 2022 publication would consolidate and analyze 10 years of studies focused on the efficacy and effectiveness of couple and family therapy. For AAMFT, the special issue represented a once-in-a-decade shot to raise awareness and understanding of the practice and profession of marriage and family therapy.
Solution: O&U worked with AAMFT to craft a year-long communications strategy to engage association members and journal authors, leverage the insights of the JMFT, and position AAMFT as the go-to thought leader on marriage and family therapy.
To garner broad interest in an academic journal required creativity and a steady drumbeat of activity throughout the year. O&U deployed an array of tactics that included press releases, strategic media pitches, blog posts, ad-hoc videos, an educational video series, earned and paid social media, and member toolkits.
Results: The campaign beat every goal set by AAMFT and O&U. The efforts led to:
- More than 36,000 JMFT articles were downloaded during the campaign.
- AAMFT leaders and JMFT authors were quoted or featured across a variety of radio, digital and print media outlets, including WebMD and Psych Central, Everyday Health, MindSite News, VeryWell Family, Health Professional Radio, The Systemic Way, and iHeart Media.
- More than 4,000 responses received from AAMFT’s member engagement campaign.
- Nearly 1,000 new member leads gained via paid digital.
