The beginning of 2021 saw Australia change its focus, with vaccines available and a pending roll-out through the community about to happen nationally. Western Australia needed to get itself prepared to support and
take up its share of vaccines as part of the Federal plan.
In February 2021, Rare pitched and was again appointed to handle this strategically vital communication for the DPC COVID-19 Communications team. This campaign has subsequently run across multiple phases through to February 2022 where today, Western Australia is considered one of the highest vaccinated places in the world.
At no time in history has vaccination been such a focus of the media. Coverage from established and professional organisations along with that available through social channels has varied widely in its accuracy, its emotion and understanding of the vaccine, how it was developed and the impending roll-out. At best, the media was struggling to come to terms with something it couldn’t correlate or understand. At worst it was contributing and inspiring fear, confusion and hysteria.
In years to come we will look back at this period and question what happened and the role the media and its extended industry played.
The behaviour barriers that the Vaccine Campaign had to overcome were clear:
CONFIDENCE:
Will the vaccine work and is it safe
CONVENIENCE:
How easy is it to get as well as obtaining additional doses
COMPLACENCY:
WA is safe, COVID-19 is over why bother, WA isn’t even socially distancing anymore
Vaccines only work if people take them. And people only take vaccines if they trust them. Persuading the WA population to trust the vaccines
available was a huge marketing challenge for the State Government and WA Health Services.
Rare was tasked to develop an awareness and broadbased education campaign for the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out that would underpin and achieve three clear objectives:
Any campaign produced had to be incredibly flexible and adaptable to meet the ever-changing needs of the community and demands of the pandemic. The campaign had to communicate across society and
be useable throughout all geographic areas. In its simplest form people needed to recognise the State Government communication about the vaccine, understand what the vaccine was for, that it would protect the individual and communities against serious illness, and understand where to get it.
Getting the community working together was key in the fight against COVID-19, this was true during 2020 and particularly seen in the way WA responded to the State Government’s management of COVID-19 at that time. Whilst sentiment had changed, achieving that same sense of purpose was considered vital to achieving the objectives set for 2021.
The solution? A brand identity with an in-built call to action. We asked WA to work together again; for every person to play their part and get vaccinated. Not just for their own health but for their families, the very young and the old, their friends and their communities. For all West Australians.
Rare created the brand identity and campaign slogan that has been adopted and applied to all vaccine communication:
Roll up for WA
This underpinned every communication run by the State Government, irrespective of media channel or format.
PHASE 1 – ARMING
Our task was to lay the foundation of confidence across Western Australia, dealing with the most obvious questions and issues surrounding the vaccines. So, coupled with the introduction and launch of the new ‘Roll up for WA’ brand, our creative showed everyday people – male, female, young and old – all ‘rolling up’ their sleeves and revealing a band aid/patch covering the spot where they had received their vaccination. They were seen wearing their patch as a badge of honour and proud to have done their bit for WA.
Support messaging varied through the early months of 2021, relevant to the vaccine available, the age demographics suitable and State Government requirements. Targeted messaging extended further to suit Aboriginal, non-speaking English communities and socially disadvantaged.
The campaign enjoyed massive exposure, with broad reach and frequency. The brand and call to action was adopted by State Government and Ministers across their public statements. WA media accepted and adopted it, so that it was quickly and efficiently established as the most recognised and trusted brand on the topic.
The act of rolling up your sleeve became an accepted and acknowledged representation of getting the vaccine and doing the right thing. This was met with a wave or early adopters who readily jumped on the
bandwagon.
69%
of WA residents were
vaccinated or about to
receive their first dose.
24%
of WA residents needed
further motivation and
assistance in decision
making.
7%
of people have
no intention of
getting vaccinated.
PHASE 2 – VISUALISE
The second key task was to build confidence in the vaccine by demonstrating how many people had received their vaccine, via the use of real community champions across a broad range of working groups. Using them in a recognisable, believable and inspiring way. This included professionals such as Doctors, Nurses, First Responders, Politicians and more.
This messaging and imagery were aggressively run through Digital and Social platforms against target profiling of audiences not yet vaccinated. Media Influencers were also engaged to further enhance the proofing of the vaccines. In all cases, this phase was designed to demonstrate real people having received the vaccine and confident in their future lifestyles to those that needed further persuasion.
75%
of WA residents were
vaccinated or about to
receive their first dose.
20%
of WA residents needed
further motivation and
assistance in decision
making.
4%
of people have
no intention of
getting vaccinated.
PHASE 3 – DISARMING
As the number of vaccinated people quickly grew, the small number of ‘anti-vaccine’ voices became more determined and entrenched. Alongside this staunchly ‘anti-vaccine’ group were those people who were misinformed, easily swayed, or simply waiting for the right time to act. To achieve the overall Objective, our campaign had to evolve into a more direct style, confronting misleading information with hard facts.
This phase was led with the use of Dr Karl (Kruszelnicki), a national personality who is widely respected and trusted by the broadest of audiences. A fervent supporter of all vaccines, Dr Karl openly and honestly answered the varied concerns and questions that people had about the vaccine, providing the truth in a rational and engaging manner. This phase of activity was called:
“You’ve got questions”
The goal of this phase being to recognise, respect and acknowledge concerns of people and persuade them via proven data and with rational and sensible argument, to take the vaccine. This approach combined with previous campaign phases worked extremely well in moving those reluctant to act.
84%
of WA residents were
vaccinated or about to
receive their first dose.
12%
of WA residents needed
further motivation and
assistance in decision
making.
4%
of people have
no intention of
getting vaccinated.
NOSTALGIA
As vaccination numbers rose higher, it was clear that a substantial number of laggards would require specific motivation. Building on the massive brand equity established for ‘Roll up for WA’, this next iteration of the campaign was designed to rise above the noise and achieve creative cut-through.
We wanted to separate emotional and rational messaging, using empathy to suggest why getting vaccinated was the right thing to do.
This next stage utilised all the existing brand components but through a unique creative execution, supported by Louis Armstrong’s ‘Wonderful World’ soundtrack (re-recorded using WA local Stella Donnelly and the amazing WA Symphony Orchestra), this next phase targeted specific personas of people with strong:
– Family focus and values
– Lifestyles focus and values
For this group of the community, WA’s closed border, and protected life was relatively normal but they needed to be reminded that they were missing out on important travel – domestic and international, life experiences with family and friends and specific lifestyle events such as festivals, arts, culture, sports experiences and more.
Massive cut-through was achieved and this
drove another wave of vaccine acceptance across
the community.
