Up to now few years, flu vaccination charges have decreased by 16 proportion factors for pregnant individuals and 7 proportion factors for kids.
It’s a worrying public well being development. Pregnant individuals and youngsters youthful than 5 are amongst these at elevated threat for extreme flu instances, hospitalization and demise.
To fight the pervasive misperception, amplified on-line, that the flu vaccine doesn’t work, and to succeed in these high-risk populations in areas with traditionally larger caseloads and low flu vaccination protection, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) launched a digital flu vaccine marketing campaign in early September.
The “Wild to Gentle” marketing campaign goals to “reframe the dialogue and expectations” round what the flu vaccine can and might’t do, mentioned Erin Burns, affiliate director for communications for the CDC’s Influenza Division.
The messaging emphasizes how a flu shot can “tame” flu’s signs, taking them “from wild to delicate.” The visible property juxtapose wild animals towards nonthreatening counterparts, like a shark and a goldfish, a tiger and a kitten or a grizzly bear and a stuffed teddy.
The medium is the message
Within the CDC’s focus teams, individuals talked about how they nonetheless acquired sick after entering into for a flu shot.
“Individuals grow to be discouraged and subsequently don’t get vaccinated once more,” Burns mentioned. However whereas the flu vaccine can stop an infection, its fundamental energy is lowering the severity of an an infection.
The marketing campaign, which is able to run by way of the top of January, targets pregnant individuals and fogeys with paid placements within the digital environments the place they’re spending time and looking for out well being info, in accordance with Burns.
Whereas the federal company is primarily working adverts on Fb and Instagram, it’s additionally producing a sequence of digital radio spots for Pandora, working search adverts and trying to collaborate with Peanut, an app for pregnant ladies. The CDC doesn’t have a TikTok presence, nevertheless it’s working with a vetted group of microinfluencers to share the marketing campaign message on their channels.
To allay any issues about vaccines, the CDC discovered influencers to talk candidly about their private experiences with the flu vaccine and why they selected to vaccinate themselves and their youngsters. The company additionally addressed among the fundamental issues “upfront in our messaging,” Burns mentioned.
For example, many expectant mother and father are apprehensive about their child’s security, so the CDC centered on the message that flu vaccines, safely administered to thousands and thousands of pregnant ladies for greater than 50 years, have “an excellent security document,” Burns mentioned.
The messaging additionally stresses {that a} flu vaccine throughout being pregnant grants infants immunity to the flu for the primary few months after start, after they’re too younger to obtain their very own vaccines. This info got here as a shock to many focus group contributors.
“It was eye-opening for them,” Burns mentioned. “They’re like, wow, if that is one thing that’s going to guard and assist my child, I might rethink my resolution to not get vaccinated.”
Calling the photographs
The CDC examined 4 ideas with supporting textual content in its focus teams earlier than deciding on the “Wild to Gentle” idea.
Scare techniques and “wording that comes off as shaming or judgmental” didn’t land with focus group contributors, Burns mentioned. Early on, the company dominated out one advert choice as a result of it evoked a “visceral response” from mother and father, she mentioned, who “felt like they had been being informed that in the event that they hadn’t vaccinated their youngsters, then they weren’t good mother and father.”
The remaining three ideas all examined pretty effectively, however the profitable idea introduced new info that felt “motivating” and “truthful” to focus group contributors, Burns mentioned. Additionally, the CDC got here throughout as “forthright and clear” on this inventive choice, making the contributors really feel higher concerning the company as an entire.
The CDC may use the model raise – and the goodwill.
The previous three years have seen a “tarnishing of public notion” of the establishment, Burns mentioned. More and more, individuals have reacted to the CDC and different authorities organizations with cynicism and lack of belief.
The CDC plans to measure not solely efficiency metrics for its flu marketing campaign, like attain, click-through fee and time spent on the designated CDC touchdown web page, but in addition the standard of the engagement.
Typically when the CDC engages on social media, “skilled anti-vaxxers who spend their time attempting to torpedo vaccines” take over the dialogue, and it turns detrimental in a short time, Burns mentioned.
However the tone tends to be markedly extra optimistic in response to content material from microinfluencers, who’re “already trusted spokespeople,” she mentioned. The CDC was so struck by the success of its microinfluencer pilot final 12 months that it expanded this system.
“We’re regularly the place we’re getting probably the most bang for our buck when it comes to paid placements and refining that to seek out the best efficiencies,” Burns mentioned.
As well as, the CDC is translating the marketing campaign into Spanish and contemplating A/B testing totally different variations of the inventive to make sure it resonates with Spanish-speaking audiences. For example, how a lot does the rhyme within the “Wild to Gentle” marketing campaign slogan actually matter? “You need it to be colloquial, however you additionally need it to be correct,” Burns mentioned.
Accuracy is all the things for this marketing campaign. Getting it proper – finessing the knowledge, the tone, the wording and the presentation to attract individuals in, not alienate them – is a matter of life and demise.
Since flu deaths in youngsters are “nationally notifiable,” the CDC receives a report each time a pediatric demise happens.
“As a mother myself, to see these is heartbreaking,” Burns mentioned. “And as a lot as potential, the hope is that this marketing campaign will assist individuals decide that stops these sorts of tragic occasions.”
