Ambassador-led digital campaign to drive early action in multiple sclerosis
/Overview
Cube led the MS Motion initiative into its third phase, continuing to raise awareness of the need for early symptom recognition in MS – where acting fast can help to protect the brain and quality of life. While earlier phases focused on building foundational awareness, Phase 3 responded to a rapidly evolving digital landscape, where content consumption had shifted – shorter attention spans, more video, less polish. MS Motion was truly co-created with people living with MS, the campaign used authentic, ambassador-led storytelling to connect with women aged 20–40 and prompt action.
/Challenge
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a lifelong, progressive neurological condition affecting more than 33,000 Australians. Its symptoms are often vague, varied and difficult to diagnose, yet early intervention can help to protect the brain and reduce the impact MS has on an individual’s life. And so, the challenge wasn’t what to say, it was how to say it, and how to deliver the message in a way that would truly engage and drive early action. The campaign needed to cut through to an audience of primarily women aged 20–40 – including those newly diagnosed, living with undiagnosed symptoms or navigating relapsing forms of MS – within an increasingly complex and fast-moving digital environment.
/Solution
This was a purely digital campaign; built for the way we consume content today. Every element was shaped in collaboration with people living with MS to ensure relevance and impact:
- Delivered across paid social, organic social and paid search, the campaign was designed to reach, engage and convert the audience at every stage of their journey
- Co-creation workshop: Ambassadors, clinicians and advocacy groups shaped each aspect of the campaign – language, tone, creative approach – ensuring it reflected real experiences, not assumptions
- Messaging matrix: A co-developed dual-messaging framework ensured language would resonate with community members with varied lived experiences
- Ambassador-led content: Six women with lived experience – already active as advocates on their own social channels – were onboarded as MS Motion ambassadors to be the voice of the initiative. They developed unscripted content in their own style to maximise relatability and authenticity.
Impact
Strong reach and visibility
We reached 835,000+ people across paid and organic activity with 383,000+ reached during the initial awareness phase.
High-impact video engagement
We achieved 53,000+ ThruPlays (15+ second views) on ambassador created content highlighting the power of personal storytelling to connect with the community.
Meaningful engagement
Content garnered 74,000+ engagements including shares, saves, comments and reactions, with an engagement rate of 49% across the engagement phase, outperforming all industry standards. Comments reinforced the audiences’ engagements with messages such as “Thank you I needed to hear that” and “Great words and advice.”
Ambassador amplification
Ambassadors extended reach through reshares, comments and collaborations, strengthening the community feel. Social responses confirmed real-world impact, with ambassadors receiving DMs such as: “This gave me the courage to finally talk to my neurologist.”
Organic momentum and community growth
MS Motion Meta channels grew by 1,029 followers, through 25 organic posts, despite page growth not being a core KPI. Instagram channel followers increased by 337%.
Driving engagement and action
The campaign drove 31,200+ clicks to the MS Motion website and supporting resources, with paid search delivering a strong 9.5% CTR, and over 50,000+ site visits, primarily driven by symptom-related searches.
TESTIMONIAL
The Cube team have extensive experience in strategic communications to create impactful campaigns and events and demonstrate a real understanding of our organisation’s brand, objectives, and a broad range of partners and stakeholders. The team are dedicated to and skilful at crafting compelling narratives, securing high-profile media placements, attending to details and navigating through challenges in complex environments.
Collaborating with Cube has been an immensely positive experience. Cube has demonstrated an excellent understanding of our goals and values, ensuring every aspect of the communications plan aligns with GSK’s mission. Their proactive approach in identifying opportunities and potential challenges has been a key factor in the success of our communications efforts. With meticulously planned execution of media engagements, the team’s professionalism, enthusiasm and creativity have exceeded our expectations, making them an indispensable business partner.
Working with Cube has been a remarkable experience. Like BeOne, they are a small team with big ambitions. Time and again, Cube has proven to be an effective, reliable, and responsible partner. They bring enormous energy, detail and innovation to every project and have helped BeOne achieve the highest goals and meet the tightest timelines. For every idea, they have a solution ready.
Cube has partnered with Biocelect managing the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine to Australia and New Zealand. The team has worked attentively and collaboratively with Biocelect and the US team in managing the challenging pandemic and vaccine dynamics as they evolve. They have applied their strategic communication, crisis management and media skills to be pre-emptive and agile in preparing for and managing local media and political commentary. They are responsive, professional, a pleasure to work with and, like Biocelect, hardworking!
We brought Cube in as an external agency to support us with a communications initiative for one of our products in 2019. Now – I don’t know what I would do without them! They are no longer viewed as ‘the agency’, but integral to the Novartis team – as partners and strategic advisors. Now working across multiple portfolios, Cube consistently bring their high-level strategic insight, laser focus for detail, and deep expertise across the entire gamut of communications. I would highly recommend Cube to anyone looking for a nimble yet well-rounded agency partner.
In our dealings with Cube over the past 3 years, we have found the team to be very professional, enthusiastic and helpful. Their high level of honesty and integrity means we have full trust in their recommendations and their approach to meeting our needs. Their strategic thinking and recommended plans are always well-considered. They have done high level strategic work for us and developed detailed plans as well as a new service launch. They have been very responsive to our needs and we would not hesitate to engage them again!
MS Australia engaged Cube for two critically important campaigns in the first half of 2022. Their strategic planning and implementation was first-class, and the very significant results has greatly assisted our advocacy work.
For our landmark MS Nurse Care Report launched in Tasmania, Cube crafted a communications plan focussed on local media which as planned, fanned out to outlets across the country. The coverage was astounding and helped raise vital awareness about the role of the MS Nurse in the patient care journey and the need for more funding.
Cube also expertly project-managed a market research study and national communications plan for our Employment & Workplace Survey, launched on World MS Day. This campaign garnered significant media coverage and spotlighted critical issues around employment and MS.
We cannot thank Cube enough for their friendliness, support and compassion for people living with multiple sclerosis.
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