The Change of Heart regional campaign was specifically commissioned to tackle low vaccination rates in 16-29 year olds – a group deemed to be at high risk of contracting and spreading Covid-19.
At February 2022, around 25% of north easterners in the age group were unvaccinated, equivalent to around 106,000 people, making it the age range with the highest proportion of unvaccinated adults.
The content and approach for the campaign was based on detailed insight gained from qualitative research with young people across the region.
The creative was based on the premise that it’s never too late to change your mind and get vaccinated, whether it’s your first, second or booster jab.
From March 2022, the campaign ran for two months across a range of advertising media and included a comprehensive communications toolkit to support wider amplification across NHS, local authority and higher education settings.
The approach was highly effective, with:
- 65% of the target audience recalling at least one element
- 40% of people recognising the TV adverts
- digital advertising recognised by over a third.
Importantly, 84% of the audience took at least one of the campaign’s desired actions and 24% stated that they had a vaccination after seeing the campaign, with 11% having changed their mind about wanting a vaccination.
At the national NHS Communicate 2022 awards, the campaign won for ‘Use of insight and data for innovation in communications’, with judges commenting on the effective use of detailed insight about the target audience and the clarity of objectives and evaluation, which provided sound evidence of its successful impact. It was also highly commended in the ‘Best behaviour change or public health campaign’ category.
At the north east’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations 2022 awards, the campaign won gold in three categories and silver in another, plus three Prolific North marketing awards, against competition from across the northern region.
