CDC - Powell Tate

A flu vaccine can take flu from Wild to Mild

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Flu causes millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and thousands of deaths annually in the U.S. Despite this threat to public health, CDC data show a decline in flu vaccination rates, especially among high-risk groups, including pregnant people and children.

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The challenge

The annual flu vaccine is the best protection against flu and its complications. CDC research has shown, however, that many Americans are skeptical that flu vaccines are essential – whether because of vaccine misconceptions, belief that flu vaccines don’t work, or the perception that flu is not severe.

The solution

In collaboration with CDC, our research-based creative strategy addressed this widespread complacency and skepticism about flu vaccines by elevating a less discussed truth: Vaccine effectiveness isn’t binary (“vaccines prevent disease or don’t”); vaccines can work by mitigating the worst symptoms.

The campaign used “mild” and “wild” animal pairings to demonstrate how flu vaccines work to reduce flu’s “wildest” symptoms if a person does get sick.

We implemented a multi-channel, integrated approach across paid, earned, social, and digital activations. We tailored creative content and messaging to resonate with our intended audiences, and engaged trusted community voices as messengers with a content creator program and lnstagram collaborations with healthcare and advocacy partners.

The impact

3 – 4% increase: the “Wild to Mild” campaign increased understanding of flu and the importance of flu vaccination, building audience members’ intention to speak with a doctor, according to an independent brand lift study. Expectant parents showed a 3-4% increase in physician intent, association/understanding of flu’s potential severity and benefits of vaccination (avg. is 2-2.6%).
55M+ impressions: paid media efforts garnered 51.8M impressions: 28M impressions to parents, and 23.9M impressions to pregnant audiences, with an average ad frequency of 4.27x. Organic social garnered nearly 4M total impressions, 22,000+ engagement and 1,300 link clicks with a 0.57% average engagement rate.

1B earned: earned media yielded 1 billion potential audience exposure driven by coverage by CNN, CBS News, TODAY Show, ENDPOINTS and several major ad/marketing trades.

7k+ engagements: the content creator program garnered 7,240 engagements and 30,087 impressions across 15 creators. The Instagram partner activation drove 605.7K impressions and 5.3K engagements.

More 👍s & ❤️s: 88% of Facebook reactions were like or love and the campaign received 20% more shares on Instagram than other CDC content.