The same trial. The same disease. Without our strategy: 15 patients enrolled. With it: 1,600. That's what a real recruitment infrastructure looks like.

The Challenge

Johns Hopkins University’s clinical trials for convalescent plasma as a COVID-19 treatment — backed by the Department of Defense under Operation Warp Speed — were failing to recruit. The reasons were compounding: rampant politicization of COVID information, aggressive media and search engine restrictions on health content, and fierce competition from dozens of concurrent trials targeting the same patient populations.

Solution

  • We deployed a fully integrated PESO + Technology plan built around trust, cultural relevance, and frictionless enrollment:

    • Paid Media: Agile mix of digital and traditional channels using Audience Architecture mapping to reach specific communities, cultures, and languages at the local level
    • Earned Media: National and local coverage with deliberate emphasis on Black media and Spanish-language outlets to reach historically underrepresented trial populations
    • Community Outreach: Grass-tops organizing strategy securing partnerships with YMCAs, local Departments of Public Health, and PTAs — building trust at the neighborhood level
    • Owned Media & Technology: Built a HIPAA-compliant candidate management platform, optimized website, FAQ chatbot, and pre-screening call center — dramatically reducing burden on clinical sites and accelerating candidate-to-enrollment conversion
Results
Metric
    Without PESO Plan
      With PESO Plan
👥 Patients Enrolled
      15
        1,600+
📈 Enrollment Improvement
      —
        100x+
"The science was ready. The trial was funded. What was missing was a strategy to find, reach, and trust-build with the right people — fast. That's exactly what we built."
Running a clinical trial with recruitment challenges? We’ve solved this before — at scale, under pressure, in one of the hardest media environments in history.

Let’s Talk

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