Ad Council Launches Massive Vaccine-Focused Campaign

As the pandemic impacts the holiday season, the Ad Council is continuing to roll out COVID-19 related messaging.

First, the Council will launch what it calls one of the largest public education campaigns in history to encourage vaccinations against the virus. This national initiative will complement government efforts and has set an initial goal of raising $50 million from the private sector, including the philanthropic community and corporations.

The organization’s effort, in partnership with the COVID Collaborative, a national assembly that has brought together leading experts and institutions, centers around two key components: the development of creative work and an insights engine that will enable continual testing and optimization of messages and creative.

The first phase of messaging is currently in development for release in early 2021.

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The initiative will also offer partners an open-source national messaging playbook with distinct approaches for diverse audiences.

Next, the “COPING-19” campaign directs audiences to a new website, Coping-19.org, with over 100 vetted resources in English and Spanish to help with  mental health needs. The site also features a set of self-care best practices and principles in accordance with CDC and leading scientists, as well as links to more in-depth information by category.

The new campaign also features TV, radio and digital PSAs. Agency partners involved with the effort include Verizon Media's RYOT Studio. Dentsumcgarrybowen created the COPING-19 platform, as well as the TV and digital PSAs, M8 created the Spanish-language spots and Entercom developed the radio assets.

The Ad Council, per its traditional model, is distributing the new PSAs to media outlets nationwide and the ads will run via donated time and space. Media donations for this campaign are coming from companies including Entercom, Google/YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit and Verizon Media.

“It’s not often you get to work on a campaign that genuinely has the power to help people manage their lives,” said Ida Rezvani, president/New York, dentsumcgarrybowen. “We committed to this work because we believe that awareness of these challenges will address the mental health of our employees as much as it will the general public.”

Separately, Ad Council and AARP are launching new PSAs to address caregivers’ mental health. Created by production company Durable Goods, the spots highlight the importance of supporting caregivers, many of whom are caring for older loved ones at higher risk for COVID-19 and offer tips at aarp.org/caregiving.

 

1 comment about "Ad Council Launches Massive Vaccine-Focused Campaign".
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  1. Philip Graham from Verdes Industries LLC, November 24, 2020 at 9:44 a.m.

    It's great to see efforts beginning on promoting vaccination but there's a long, long way to go. Government efforts are, currently, highly nebulous in specificity and while the Ad Council has historically often played a vital role in corralling great creative campaigns, their work can’t reply on donated media. It will require hundreds of millions in paid media to drive any sort of efficacy in converting the folks skeptical of a vaccine. Headlines that speak to "Massive Vaccine-focused Campaigns" without this type of explicit media support will only provide coverage for state and federal governments to sit on their hands and rely on the private sector.

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