Formal marketing efforts and free publicity helped Connect for Health Colorado officials triple awareness of their exchange between April and December.
Awareness of the HealthCare.gov federal exchange enrollment website doubled during the same period.
Managers of the state-based Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exchange paid for many different ads, including television, radio, newspaper and Facebook ads, and it also worked to get news organizations to cover the exchange.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, carriers, nonprofit groups and PPACA opponents ran their own exchange-related advertising and PR campaigns.
The exchange estimates that its campaign made about 23 million radio impressions, 180 million impressions and 816 million total impressions from May through December.
The exchange commissioned a phone survey of 761 people in April, before formal exchange marketing efforts began, and a second survey of 949 people in December.