Academy promotion of awareness months sees success

In 2023, May was Skin Cancer Awareness Month, June was Vitiligo Awareness Month, and November was National Healthy Skin Month. For each, the Academy executed a robust promotion strategy to help spread information to the public.

Skin Cancer Awareness Month

While all awareness months are important in their own way, none is more important to the Academy’s cause of educating the public about skin cancer than Skin Cancer Awareness Month. The promotion of the AAD’s SPOT Skin Cancer^™ program, which aims to provide information on how to detect and prevent skin cancer, led to over 2,600 media placements, which generated more than 2.8 billion media impressions. 

There were a variety of high-level media placements during Skin Cancer Awareness Month, including coverage from CBS Newspath, Parade, and Today, which received hundreds of placements and reached nearly 10 million people. The Academy’s social media accounts were also very active with skin-cancer-related content, sharing dozens of posts and hosting two Instagram Lives, including one that featured AAD President Terrence Cronin Jr., MD, FAAD. In total, social media posts about Skin Cancer Awareness Month were seen 16.5 million times and received 2.8 million engagements, resulting in 31,381 click-throughs to AAD.org. 

The Academy also released a Your Dermatologist Knows video, “Find skin cancer: How to perform a skin self-exam,” which received over 68,000 views in its first week and was promoted with a news release that generated 86 million media impressions. 

Vitiligo Awareness Month

For Vitiligo Awareness Month, there was a substantial increase in visitors and pageviews to AAD.org compared to 2022. The Academy achieved this by updating its existing vitiligo content, optimizing it for search engines, and promoting the new content with a Your Dermatologist Knows video, a news release, and social media posts. 

Webpage views of vitiligo pages increased 509% from 2022, with an increase of 506% in unique visitors and an increase of 13% in average engagement time. The AAD website also moved into the top Google search result for “vitiligo treatment” in June and remained in the top spot as of December. 

National Healthy Skin Month

During National Health Skin Month, the AAD became — and remains — the Google snippet when searching for National Healthy Skin Month. In addition, the Academy published and pitched a news release focused on five unsafe skin care trends to avoid that resulted in five placements in publications with a reach of 100,000 or more, generating more than 52 million impressions. Notable coverage included placements in Men’s Health and U.S. News & World Report.  

The Academy’s social media efforts were just as successful. Throughout the month, the AAD shared tips for keeping the skin healthy while reminding our audience about the importance of seeing a board-certified dermatologist for skin, hair, and nail concerns. Much of the content focused on trending topics, common mistakes, and at-home tips. Oyetewa Oyerinde, MD, FAAD, and Marisa Garshick, MD, FAAD addressed common skin care myths in an engaging Instagram Live. In total, social media posts geared toward promoting National Healthy Skin Month received 4.9 million views and 1.6 million engagements, resulting in 13,200 click-throughs to the Academy website. 

With several awareness months on the horizon in 2024, the Academy will continue its strong and successful promotion to ensure the public is getting the best possible information.