Facing Addiction

45 million American families are directly affected by addiction.

Teal’s work with Facing Addiction showcases what is possible when a long-term, trusted, and true partnership exists between client and vendor. We helped a passionate group of organizers transform their idea into a major event on the National Mall, mature into a national nonprofit organization, and most recently, merge with the nation’s leading advocacy organization focused on alcoholism and drug dependence.

Proof that powerful things happen when people unite

Four years ago, Teal Media started working with a passionate group of people — loved ones of those lost to addiction, people in recovery, and those that support and care for them. They organized UNITE to Face Addiction, a rally on the National Mall in Washington DC to raise awareness of the addiction epidemic facing our country.

UNITE to Face Addiction was so successful that the grassroots organizers established their own nonprofit organization—Facing Addiction.

In November 2016, Facing Addiction was selected to be the exclusive co-sponsor to launch the United States Surgeon General’s historic report, Facing Addiction in America. Viacom aired a special program about the Surgeon General’s report and the addiction crisis in America — and its new partnership with Facing Addiction — on 11 of its cable networks (MTV, VH1, BET, etc.) which was seen by millions of people. Teal created the social campaign graphics for this important moment. Our campaign focused on driving donations and encouraging people to get involved and take action.

By optimizing the website and social strategy to focus on conversions, Teal and Facing Addiction were able to increase the number of online donations to the organization by 150% in the months following the release of the report.

A merger with NCADD

This past year, Facing Addiction merged with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) to form the nation’s leading advocacy organization addressing addiction. Teal worked with Facing Addiction and NCADD to devise a strategy to merge the most compelling and useful content from both websites into a single web presence.

Our robust research phase; inclusive of a survey of target audiences, stakeholder working sessions, and a review of website analytics; informed our strategy to provide a guided experience for website visitors. When people are facing a crisis like addiction, they are not sure where to turn, want to feel reassured, and need a little help to get started. Hence we greet visitors with a single question — ‘How can we best support you today?’ — when they first land on the Facing Addiction website. This simple question is at once comforting, shows the human side of the organization, and helps the user take the first step in their journey.

The site also features:

• A curated, dynamic collection of content based on the preferences the visitor selects in the guided experience
• Geo-located resources that help visitors find support in their local community
• Key facts and statistics that display across the site to remind people that progress is being made, but there is still work to do
• Opportunities to take action and make a donation throughout the site that are relevant to the user’s journey

Teal is humbled to have served as a partner to Facing Addiction every step of the way — from designing the Rally’s microsite; to establishing the organization’s first website; to creating social media graphics, videos, print materials, reports, and infographics for various campaigns; and now to have created their robust new website that includes thousands of resources for those facing addiction across the country.