FTD Registry Receives 2022 MarDreamies Award for Grassroots Innovation

The FTD Disorders Registry received the 2022 MarDreamies Award for Grassroots Innovation for its use of technology to collect data from participants who enrolled prior to a registration update.

The MarDreamies awards celebrate solutions that marketing and sales professionals built to reach their goals using Salesforce and its interactive tools. Pardot, a software as a service (SaaS) marketing automation platform offered by Salesforce, is the primary marketing tool used by the Registry.

“These [Salesforce] solutions are especially impressive because they rose to solve a specific challenge while utilizing technology to automate their way to greatness,” noted Ambre Juryea-Amole, content strategist at Sercante, the award sponsor.

As an online database, the FTD Registry collects information from those affected by all types of frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) including:

• behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD)
• primary progressive aphasias (PPA)
• progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)
• corticobasal degeneration (CBD)
• FTD with motor neuron disease (also called FTD-ALS)

“The FTD Disorders Registry collects data to help researchers and direct prospects to clinical trials in the search for treatments and a cure for this group of rare diseases, for which there currently are none,” noted Sherry Harlass, the Registry’s Communications Manager, who led the campaign. “Maintaining data fields is critical for reporting on these diseases.”

When the registration process was updated in 2021, several new data fields were added in Salesforce. To collect this data from those who had joined prior to the update, the Registry used Pardot (recently renamed Marketing Cloud Account Engagement).

Assets the team built for this campaign included:

• 1 layout template
• 2 landing pages
• 2 forms
• 54 data fields mapped
• 1 Thank You page
• 6 email templates
• 12 Engagement Studio Programs
• 17 email lists
• 4 completion actions
• 6 operational emails
• 2 Thank you emails

The scope of the campaign encompassed intricate aspects of Pardot that the Registry team did not know. Applying for and receiving a grant through a Spring of Salesforce opportunity provided assistance to learn by doing with guidance from experts, Harlass explained.

“Barb Dietz, Manager of the Nonprofit Salesforce Community Group in Dallas, encouraged me to apply for assistance through Spring of Salesforce,” she said. “And Sophie Cox, a Trailblazer volunteer, met with me weekly via Zoom for a couple of months as each asset was created.”

Robert Reinecker stepped into the middle of the campaign’s development when he joined the Registry in November 2021. As IT System Administrator he completed and verified that the 54 data fields from the two forms were mapped correctly between Pardot to Salesforce for accurate collection of the data.

Scheduling of sending the email lists was directed by Registry Manager Lakecia Vincent, MPH, MCHES, who with Sweatha Reddy, Registry Project Manager, verified each of the updates.

“The team at FTD Disorders Registry truly encompasses the spirit of the grassroots innovation category,” said Sercante’s Juryea-Amole. “The small team wears many hats and uses community resources to figure things out when necessary.”

Through this campaign, the Registry was able to add data to nearly 2,000 fields for more than 625 participants.

“I am very proud of the Registry team; every person played a role in making this campaign successful,” stated Registry Director Dianna Wheaton, MS, PhD, CHES. “We strive to use technology to help us achieve more, making our efforts both efficient and thorough.”