New York, NY / June 19 2024 – RAPP, a global, next-gen precision marketing agency harnessing data, creativity, technology and empathy to drive client growth at scale, has partnered with their client, IRTH, to launch “Drop the B,” a campaign which kicks off on Juneteenth.
“No Black parent is free, when bias continues to tarnish birth experiences, and even disproportionately kill or nearly kill Black women and birthing people,” says Kimberly Seals Allers, a former senior editor at Essence and founder of IRTH, “As we think about Juneteenth and the meaning of liberation, we must remember that all roads to true freedom start at birth.”
With that in mind, “Drop the B” is a call to action for all parents and providers to address systemic racism and end the bias in care that leads to higher rates of Black maternal mortality and morbidity. Black birthing individuals in the U.S. are 3X more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than those who are white, with 80% of these deaths being preventable.
In a landscape marked by alarming racial disparities in maternal healthcare outcomes, IRTH emerges as a beacon of hope with a digital platform that is revolutionizing harnessing consumer power and redefining how data is used. Kimberly Seals Allers, who was inspired to create the app because of her own traumatic birth experience, IRTH’s mission is to impact the birthing journey for Black and brown mothers, operating as a “Yelp-like” review app for Ob/GYNs, birthing hospitals, and pediatricians. On the back end, Irth’s anonymized reviews are turned into robust patient experience data and hospital improvement plans.
To propel IRTH’s mission and combat this issue while fighting the bias from which it stems, RAPP leveraged a variety of leading data sources to delve into the minds of IRTH’s audience, to better understand how to meet their needs with IRTH as their digital partner. Based on the insights gleaned, RAPP learned that there was a huge disparity in information — such as feedback on providers, hospitals and overall care — available specifically for Black and brown mothers, despite the existence of IRTH. The team realized that the first step in making change was creating awareness of IRTH’s capability to provide that valuable knowledge.
From this nugget of truth, the “Drop the B” campaign was born – serving as both an extension for the brand name and a call for all Black and brown birthing people and their allies to engage and spread the word. The integrated campaign includes a landing page and social media with a bold call to action to join IRTH in its movement to Drop the B for Bias. By signing up to join the campaign, pregnant people, new parents, healthcare providers, doulas, and allies are all encouraged to support IRTH’s mission to enable safer care for all. With a refreshed brand look and feel, the campaign tailors to the modern birthing individual who deserves a five-star experience.
RAPP’s engagement with IRTH over the last several months, leading up to Juneteenth, was born out of their Series R program, a marketing accelerator that awarded one early-stage start-up with pro-bono marketing services that would otherwise remain financially inaccessible. After hearing Founder & Executive Director, Kimberly’s story and seeing the potential for IRTH to address systemic inequities in the healthcare space, IRTH was selected as the winner. IRTH’s platform, designed to be customer-centric, tech-enabled, and data-driven, is aligned with RAPP’s craft as well as the values of the accelerator.
