A community-based social marketing campaign to increase HIV testing and test retrieval among MSM African-American youth

AIDS is the leading cause of death for people ages 15-49 worldwide, and more than 50 percent of new infections each year are among people age 25 and under. The epidemic also disproportionately affects people of color—half of all new HIV infections each year in the United States are among African American. Barriers to testing and test retrieval are high in the African American MSM community. This evidence-based social marketing initiative used comprehensive market research to develop an audience-centered campaign that motivates behavior change in a high-risk, highly disenfranchised youth population. Primary strategies included using peer mentoring and social networks to reach youth where they are, engaging community-based partners and adapting the primary image for each community. The campaign has experienced extremely positive results, including more than 100 percent increase in testing and test retrieval in target markets for each of the three years of the campaign. In 2008, a transgender image is being added to the campaign mix, based on feedback from the target audience. The core strategy included recruiting and training community-based partners to implement the campaign, which was composed of flexible, customizable tools delivered primarily through peer-to-peer interactions. This was a necessary component, but more resource needed to be invested to ensure the partners had the capacity to fully implement the campaign. Additional evaluation and results will be available for the conference.