When the pandemic hit, the conversation about vaccines became front page news overnight.
We worked with Wellcome to strategise how to respond to this new demand for information, in a way that made information accessible and digestible to a broad audience, but with a key target of journalists and policy makers who suddenly found themselves on the front line of a heated debate.
Pulling together a crack team of strategists, academics, PR wizzes and our in house content team, we created a bespoke communications framework in a matter of weeks, and used this to structure a communications hub of content, from snackable animations to deeper explainers, all tailored around 3 questions to allow the audience to find what they needed fast:
1: How do the vaccines work?
2: How are the vaccines safe?
3: When will I get the vaccines?
Constantly reading the evolving social conversation, we used a layered communications strategy from influencer partnerships to provide reach, diverse spokespeople interviews to provide trust, quick-fire social animations for speed, and deeper explainers to provide detail. All of this was executed with the scientific rigour required by the Wellcome brand, combined with lightness, humour and analogies where possible to keep the content accessible and avoid alienating audience members who may have mixed levels of knowledge.
The headline asset of the hub was a set of vaccine communications principles for media professionals which acted as a quick-fire bootcamp for the many people who were suddenly having to go from zero to hero on their vaccine communications overnight.
The resulting vaccine comms hub was linked from the Wellcome front page with the 10 x principles shared pro-actively with industry professionals and policymakers through PR, social channels and an email bulletin.
The content itself was then shared on Wellcome channels, and those of partners such as UNICEF, GAVI, scientific partners such as Prof Luke O’Neil and influencers such as international domino influencer @Hevesh5 - ensuring we were balancing depth and reach in our outreach.
Here are some highlights of our project with Wellcome Trust,
How to END the pandemic… WITH 7,500 DOMINOES?!
We collaborated with dynamo domino influencer Hevesh5 to explain COVAX and the need for equitable vaccine rollout, in a highly shareable format which appeals to a large audience.
Why does the Covid-19 virus mutate?
We created a diverse range of trusted spokespeople films, including talking to Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome trust, and quizzed him across a number of vaccine related questions.
How have Covid-19 vaccines been made quickly and safely?
To explain important information about the Covid-19 vaccine and dispel myths, we created a range of animated explainers, using everyday language and analogies, which conveyed details in a way which appealed to journalists and policy makers, as well as a broader mainstream audience.