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The brain health media landscape is crowded and complicated. Coverage tends to fixate on disease states like Alzheimer’s and dementia, creator-driven marketing often trades in product hype over science, and stigma keeps too many people from talking openly about cognitive decline at all. The McKnight Brain Research Foundation (MBRF), the only foundation dedicated specifically to advancing research on age-related cognitive decline, is working to change that. After the successful launch of MBRF’s BrainWorks, Optimize Your Brain Span campaign, BRG set out to do more than sustain the program’s visibility. Together, BRG and MBRF used the momentum of a landmark first year to deepen MBRF’s role as the definitive voice on normal cognitive aging.

How We Did It

• Grew the bench of trusted voices. Brought in additional MBRF-funded researchers from McKnight Brain Institutes for targeted pitching to medical trades and consumer health outlets, and prioritized thought leadership beyond earned media, including conference opportunities, HCP association partnerships, and medical trade bylines
• Shifted from launch mode to a year-round drumbeat. Built story angles around key cultural moments and developed a rapid-response framework so MBRF spokespeople could credibly weigh in on viral brain health moments in real time
• Scaled paid digital with more precision. Advanced the paid social testing framework, integrated paid search with SEO to capture high-intent audiences, and implemented more granular attribution tracking linking digital investment to outcomes like resource downloads and newsletter sign-ups

The Impact

The program delivered measurable growth across every objective. SEO rankings climbed sharply across priority keywords, with searches for “memory and aging” jumping 39 spots and “cognition and aging” up 21. MBRF’s bench of spokespeople grew sixfold, to more than 40 McKnight Brain Institute researchers available for media activations, helping drive more than 150 media placements and 630 million-plus impressions, with MBRF mentioned in every piece of coverage. That visibility placed MBRF among the most prominent names in the space, appearing in 1,800 online and print articles, ahead of organizations like the NIH, the Alzheimer’s Association, and AARP. Online, the conversation reached more than 460,000 users, resonating most with adults 35 and older and generating over 16,000 clicks to educational resources and more than 17,000 engagements. The program enabled MBRF to do far more than publish research: It created space to change how people talk about brain health.