The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has selected ICF (NASDAQ:ICFI), a consulting and technology services provider to government and commercial clients around the world, and its award-winning health communications practice for nine contracts with a combined value of up to $34.4 million. The contracts underscore ICF’s leadership role in addressing the world’s most important health issues.
“ICF has a robust history of working with CDC to change behavior around some of the world’s most pressing public health issues, including prescription drug overdose, tobacco use among youth and diabetes in high-risk populations,” said Kris Tremaine, senior vice president for ICF. “We continue to bring marketing innovation and employ the latest tools, tactics, and technologies to ensure that CDC’s campaigns reach the right audience, with the right message, through the right channel.”
With the new contracts, the first eight of which were awarded in the third quarter, the CDC will tap ICF’s leading capabilities in campaign development, research, creative, digital advertising, traditional and social media, social marketing, and stakeholder engagement.
The first agreement is a new task order with CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) for ICF to provide comprehensive, integrated communications, marketing, technical assistance, and materials development to support OSH’s tobacco prevention efforts. ICF will also develop materials and messaging to support the agency’s media and outreach efforts to promote the recently released Surgeon General’s report on tobacco use and other high-profile publications. This task order was awarded under a 10-year Communications Services blanket purchase agreement (BPA) won by ICF last year.
Three other communications task orders are with CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. ICF will develop and execute integrated marketing campaigns designed to raise awareness and change behavior around the increasingly important public health topics of antibiotics use, sepsis, infection control in healthcare settings, and prevention of travel-related diseases.
Three other agreements support CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, agency-wide health communication initiatives, and agency-wide scientific education programs. ICF will amplify these programs with a broad range of digital and social media communication services.
The last third quarter task order is with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for ICF to develop training and technical assistance tools for the National Diabetes Prevention Program.
“CDC communications clients are savvy and they understand that there is no substitute for experienced and talented health communicators,” said Frances Heilig, vice president leading health communication at ICF. “ICF has built its health communication organization around some of the most talented people available in the market, and clients looking for measurable results are picking the people that they know will deliver.”
In another task order, awarded in the second quarter, ICF will oversee the development of a large-scale, targeted communications campaign, including digital, out-of-home, and radio advertisements, designed to raise awareness about the risks associated with prescription opioid abuse. ICF will also develop outreach tools and materials and create an online, mobile-accessible training for healthcare providers to promote adoption of CDC’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.
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