Vaccine misinformation tackled in new WA public awareness campaign via 303 MullenLowe Perth

The WA Department of the Premier and Cabinet and Department of Health have kickstarted a new effort to tackle vaccine misinformation through a public awareness campaign created by 303MullenLowe, Mediahub and Carat WA.

The ‘Don’t Assume You’re Immune’ campaign aims to educate the public about the importance of vaccines, encourage people to get vaccinated as per the WA immunisation schedule – and raise awareness of the potentially life threatening complications of vaccine-preventable diseases.

303 MullenLowe has developed the campaign to drive medium and long-term behaviour change around immunisation, through strategy, creative and production. The appointment to the account was made following a competitive pitch and utilises the strong and proven behaviour change skills the agency is renowned for.

Mediahub was tasked with media strategy, collaborating with Carat WA which developed the channel implementation plan for the integrated campaign. It is live from this week for the next 12-months across TV, online video, social media, large and small format OOH, radio (targeted and mainstream), press, cinema, high impact digital displays and search.

Says Matt Oakley, chief strategy officer, 303 MullenLowe Perth: “With complacency, low perceived risk of disease, and misconceptions around possible side effects among the biggest barriers to vaccine uptake, the campaign’s message has been developed with a strong sense of compassion rather than compliance.

“The subject of vaccinations is clouded by misinformation and disinformation, so it makes behaviour change challenging. One of the biggest barriers to vaccine take-up is a sense of complacency – essentially, “it’ll never happen to me”, so demonstrating that complacency has very real consequences was an important element to address.

“As a result, Sara Oteri (ECD) and the creative team flipped the many excuses for not getting immunised as the very reason why people should get vaccinated. The campaign’s tagline of Don’t Assume You’re Immune is not just a memorable mnemonic, but also a call to action for our target audiences that we hope will increase the perceived risk to the health of themselves, and crucially, their loved ones.”

Says Kylie Macey, GM, Mediahub Perth: “A key role in delivering campaign effectiveness was to ensure all media aligned with the identified stages of behaviour change. Having the right mix of channels meant that we could firstly capture the general population’s attention and subsequently raise their motivation. Secondly, we needed to fill knowledge gaps by giving answers and capability to key segments. And finally, we needed to demonstrate the opportunity to take action with disease specific creative.”

Says Michelle Testa, client partner, Carat WA: “Carat has been proud to evolve the media strategy working alongside 303 MullenLowe and Mediahub on this important community initiative. The campaign is grounded in fusing behaviour change principles with metrics of attention to jolt the community into action. Whilst a robust digital strategy shifts that attention to building trust and action through pairing data signals to match content and audience. This campaign demonstrates the power of collaboration for the public good and Carat WA is pleased it could play a part in such an important community initiative.”

Credits
WA Department of the Premier and Cabinet
Strategic Communications Unit

WA Department of Health
Communications Directorate

303 MullenLowe Perth
Managing Director & Business Lead: René Migliore
Chief Strategy Officer: Matt Oakley
Planner: Harvey Clarke-Smith
Executive Creative Director: Sara Oteri
Art Director: Stephen Hansen
Copywriter: Zosia Kilpatrick, Ellysia Burton
Head of Design: Alby Furfaro
Graphic Designer: Lucas Faim
Finished Artist: Suzanne Whoston and Angela Homman
Head of Production: Johnathan Julius
Business Director: Connie Trinh

Mediahub (Media Strategy)
General Manager: Kylie Macey

Carat (Media Planning)
Client Partner: Michelle Testa
Group Investment Director: Sam Giuffre
Digital Strategy Director: Dale Ferreria
Client Manager: Sophie Park
Client Associate: Ollie O’Meehan
Digital Manager: Nicole MacNeil, Megs Hollis
Performance Manager: Gerry Eeringa
Data & Analytics Lead: Griffin Becker

Larchmont
Director: Mitch Green
Producer: Luke Kneller
DOP: Gregoire Liere

Production Crew
Line Producer: Susie Opie
1st AD: Mark Boskell
Photography: Finlay MacKay
1st AC / Focus Puller: Murray Johnston
2nd AC: Amelia Morgan-de Laine
Gaffer: Jean Vandermeiren
Best Boy: Andrew Piercy
Key Grip: Greg Stirling
Grip Assistant: Blade Chenoweth
Grip Assist: Zac Walker
Sound Recordist: Scott Montgomery
Production Designer: Kylie Clifford
Art Assist: Darrell Beck
Wardrobe: Lien See Leong
Make Up & Hair: Ali Knapton
Location Manager: Crystal McCallum
Location Assistant/Unit: Carmel Fox
Casting: Megan Carpenter

*Social Campaign produced by Clockwork Films WA x Directed by Mikey Hamer*

Post Production & Audio Post Production
Offline Edit: Lucas Vazquez
Colour: Marcus Friedlander
Online & Delivery: The Office of John Cheese (James Hawkes)
Audio Mix, ATL : Electric Sheep Music
Sound Designer, Radio: Soundbyte (Brad Habib)