HealthyChildren.org Project

HealthyChildren.org is the premier destination for child health information for parents and caregivers on the Web and is the only site backed by 62,000 members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Challenge

The American Academy of Pediatrics is the gold standard for child health content and a major book publisher with over 8 million copies in print. The AAP hired Balanced Growth to devise the strategy and manage the implementation of its new digital business venture.

Approach & Results

Conducted a Digital Opportunity Assessment to determine the potential for the initiative and identify the key strategies and actions to bring the venture to life.

Developed a multi-year Business Plan including defining the business model, marketing strategy, revenue sources, operational strategy, staffing model, business requirements, and implementation plan.  

Balanced Growth Consulting managed all aspects of the new business venture including putting an internal and external team in place; initializing the revenue strategy; selecting the technology vendor; working with the vendor and team to design, develop, and test the site; and developing the branding, marketing and launch strategies.

Successfully launched HealthyChildren.org in less than one year to a US and international audience.  Since launch, the site has attracted over 31 million users, 24 million visits, and 60 million page impressions. 

HealthyChildren.org has earned numerous awards and distinctions including a Webby Award nomination, Chicago Innovation Award finalist, a Gold Award by the Society of National Association Publications, and an Innovation of the Year by Miami Children's Hospital.  Finally, HealthyChildren.org is recommended as the best pediatric health site in the world by O, The Oprah Magazine and on Oprah.com.

In addition to being the premier destination for child health information on the Web; the site generated a profit in all of its first three years in operation.  It has attracted marquee sponsors such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, The Kellogg Company, Pfizer, Novartis, McNeil and Unilever.

Balanced Growth has also developed the HealthyChildren.org 2.0 Strategy that will propel significant growth and enable new innovations such as mobile applications.  For example, the Symptom Checker iPhone and iPad application is available on the Apple iPhone App Store.