In this special episode of #MediaSnack Tom is joined by Bill Ryerson, founder and president of Population Media Center. Population Media Canter is a non-profit organisation that uses media to change lives of people around the world. It works to educate people about health, social norms and environment by creating entertaining serial dramas. It works to change social norms on key issues related to women’s rights and reproductive health by creating long-running series featuring characters that evolve into role models for the watching audience. In African countries, where radio is the most consumed media, PMC works with local production companies to create relevant radio dramas. Listeners are getting so emotionally attached to these series that they even naming their children after the main characters. This shows a significant power of this initiative and proves that partnership with PMC gives a great opportunity for brands.In this exclusive interview Bill shares some impressive statistics from PMC’s Ethiopian project that was aiming to change attitudes of population towards HIV testing and family planning and attracted 46% of Ethiopian population as regular listeners. The married women who were listening to the series dramatically increased reported use of family planning products from 14% to 40% by the end of the program.PMC also creates TV dramas and in the US “East Los high” remains in the top five on Hulu for all four seasons and is now on season five. East Los High targets Hispanic teenagers and educates them about teen pregnancy, obesity and many other issues. Online data shows that viewers of East Los High were increasing their visits to reproductive health and other health service websites. Many years ago soap production companies used to funding “soap operas” to increase their sales, now PMC works with brands and individual donors to create stories that are changing lives around the world. ID Comms partnered up with PMC in 2016 and to find out how you or your company can contribute to the great work that PMC does please ask ID Comms for an introduction.
