The Cause

According to the CDC, one in every 54 children in the United States are affected by autism.

About autism:

Autism refers to a broad range of conditions that can appear as challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.

Some people with autism need little or no support and can go on to live independently, while others may require more consistent, sustained support.

Early intervention can help children affected by autism to improve their ability to learn, communicate, and to develop lifelong social skills.

For parents and caregivers, education about the diagnosis can help to build stronger relationships with their child. It also empowers them to provide tailored support to ensure children reach their full potential.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children be screened for autism during their 18 and 24-month well-child checkup. But for children in minority and low-income communities, where access to healthcare resources and screenings may be more difficult, the average age of diagnosis can be higher.

The Campaign

By showing how identifying a child’s unique needs can be a pivotal point in their journey toward achieving better — and lifelong — outcomes, the Ad council planned to encourage Pinterest users to spot the early signs of autism, and get support, if needed.

The Service Announcement was designed to:

• Raise awareness among families by reaching users through a targeted, bilingual campaign in English and Spanish
• Encourage users to click to complete a 20-question screener (M-CHAT-R) — formulated by child psychologists and health professionals.

Getting Started

First, the team reviewed the historic performance of similar campaigns run by the Ad Council. Next, these insights were combined with best practices for Pinterest based on the unique campaign objectives. Finally, VidMob creators applied these combined learnings to refine raw video footage and illustrations into a series of 10-second ads.

Each creative asset combined visual cues with either ES or EN copy, designed to drive the message home to a broad audience over the course of an eight-week campaign, launched in April 2021.

Campaign Optimization:

Following the launch of the campaign, the team used VidMob Analytics to conduct mid-flight optimizations. This gave the Ad Council an opportunity to test out the relationship between specific creative attributes and campaign performance.

After some analysis, three key changes were made to the campaign assets:

• Featuring a human presence from the first video frame
• Repositioning ad logos and the CTA button, and
• Refining ad copy to make ads address viewers directly.

Refining ad copy to make ads address viewers directly.  with some interesting results:

• The optimized assets generated +10% video view rates and +25% link click rates
• Illustration was seen to drive +25% link click rates for video ads compared to featuring real talent, but the opposite held true for static image ads
• Featuring brand logos upfront in ads correlated with +12% video view rates 
• Addressing viewers directly in an ad’s opening frame — by featuring the copy “your child” — lifted video view rates +8% and link click rates +36%

Imagery of a child looking down (away from the viewer — a potential sign of autism) yielded +14% view rates and +22% click rates compared to the account average. “Using this technology…helps us to hold the creative accountable.”
– Felicia Carmichael, Ad Council

By showing how identifying a child’s unique needs can be a pivotal point in their journey toward achieving better — and lifelong — outcomes, the Ad council planned to encourage Pinterest users to spot the early signs of autism, and get support, if needed.

The Service Announcement was designed to:

• Raise awareness among families by reaching users through a targeted, bilingual campaign in English and Spanish
• Encourage users to click to complete a 20-question screener (M-CHAT-R) — formulated by child psychologists and health professionals.

The Result

“It’s helpful to see the data that backs up our creative assumptions.”
– Felicia Carmichael, Ad Council

Overall, the campaign:

• Reached 6,958,706 Pinterest users across the United State
• Generated 35,114 pin clicks (driving families to a medical diagnostic form)
• Averaged a 48.7% video view rate and a .09% pin click rate.

→ Quiz video

The opportunity to work with VidMob’s creator network, tools and data helped to inform the organization’s creative best practices. It also underscored the importance of how subtle changes in an ad can impact performance.

Most importantly, this was an opportunity to increase early childhood screenings for autism across the United States, to offer resources and improve access to timely interventions.

The Creator Network

The VidMob Foundation is fueled by the active engagement of incredible freelance creative professionals on the VidMob platform. They’re some of the world’s most talented creators, and, time and again, have willingly dived in to offer their time and skills for charities around the world. No matter the size of the ask, or the significance of the cause, these creators believe in using creativity as a force for good, just as we do.