The Minnesota Department of Health came to us with a challenging and complex problem - to inspire citizens of Minnesota to take action and get updated vaccinations after two-plus years of COVID fatigue and unhealthy levels of distrust.
The challenge: Our goal was to raise awareness and promote quick action on the part of Minnesotans to receive the latest COVID-19 and flu vaccines. This required us to establish widespread connections across the state, and to inspire Minnesotans to take action and get the updated vaccinations.
However, time was not on our side. Given the short timeframe of 'peak' cold and flu season, we needed to reach Minnesota’s diverse population, and do it as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Strategic approach: After carefully studying our audience groups, as well as the latest vaccination marketing best practices from the CDC, and other authorities across the globe, we discovered a simple insight in this seemingly monumental challenge: the things holding these groups back weren’t big trust or safety concerns, but rather relatively minor obstacles. They simply needed either a basic question answered or a simple reminder. . . or three.
Target audiences: Finding the right audience and understanding their mindset was critical for this. We identified a sizable audience (64% of Minnesotans) of lapsed vaccine users who were pro-vaccine but were undecided or under-motivated to take action. We put our focus there, rather than trying to persuade those who are against vaccination. Special consideration was given to older adults, children, and historically underserved communities where disparities often exist in vaccination rates. We also purchased media targeted at diverse communities who are traditionally underrepresented and underserved in public health effort, and who might otherwise not get vaccinated.
Creative Strategy & Approach: Our goal with the campaign creative was to make it engaging in its tone and style, and to stand out without sounding preachy or governmental. This increased our challenge, as we needed to develop and implement a social norm change campaign on a hot button, and polarizing issue, without doing more harm than good.
Messaging was made to be relatable and easy to understand, which also allowed it to work across a diverse set of audiences and placements, and which could be tailored as needed.
Digital and broadcast video: Campaign creative featured simple, text-driven animations which posed questions and delivered endless optimism and encouragement of “yes” answers. With quick, easy-to-get, colloquial questions that ring true to the audience and fun, encouraging animations delivering the inevitable “yes” answer, these videos were quick to create and compelling to watch. So much so, they achieved a whopping video completion rate of 60%.
Our approach to achieve cultural relevance: Keeping the platform simple and positive made for a universally attractive, and easily translatable message. We targeted the state broadly with high reach placements in TV and Radio, and digitally with Connected TV, online video, streaming radio and social media.
Placements were also highly targeted toward diverse and multicultural audiences, as the simple campaign creative and language flexed with language updates, as well as culture-specific radio, digital, and pedestrian-level out-of-home placement targeting those audiences.
This limited timeframe campaign delivered long-standing results.
COVID-19 vaccination rates statewide increased 28%, with MN ranked 3rd among all states for COVID-19 vaccination rates. The % of all Adults who received updated vaccinations also increased 40%, with over 400,000 updated vaccinations.
The team planned for approximately 118M impressions and delivered 124M. With the added impressions, the campaign reached more individuals at a higher frequency than originally planned.
