When marketers think about targeting messages to consumers, do they consider whether the audience segment has been vaccinated against COVID-19? In the future, they may.
That snippet of data
reveals a lot about a person, and it may not be what people expect.
Tunnl, an audience identification and segmentation platform for the purpose-driven marketing and issue advocacy
economy, released data last week based on a quarterly survey of 5,000 individuals. I found it interesting that the majority of Americans who do not want to get the COVID-19 vaccine are
non-voters, and 56% of those who are hesitant or refuse to be vaccinated are ages 18-34. And the best way to reach them is through social media.
Tunnl can match survey results to their
database, which includes voting records. It is part of how they create audiences, along with matching survey data.
Sara Fagen, Tunnl CEO, said the findings represent a departure from
prevailing beliefs about unvaccinated people and what messaging and media should be used to reach them.
“They are also a group that is not overtly political, and they skew young,”
she said. “This would suggest that hesitancy is not for them a political issue, but more so one of perceived need.”
Non-voters -- those who do not want to get the COVID-19
vaccine or those who can be persuaded -- are much more likely to be politically disengaged. Some 61% of those who won’t get the vaccine are non-voters or have no recent history of voting, and
69% of "persuadables" on getting the vaccine are non-voters or have no recent history of voting.
Those who are politically disengaged are already difficult to communicate with because they do
not follow patterns of the American public.
In terms of communicating with this group about the vaccine, they are best reached using unconventional channels and methods.
About 12% are
less likely than the average American to watch broadcast TV. They are more than 30% more likely to use mobile streaming, digital radio, and social media.
The whole social media focus is
interesting. Some 44% are more likely than average to use WhatsApp, while 40% more likely to use Tumblr, 39% are more likely to use Instagram, 38% are more likely to be in Reddit, 36% are more likely
to use Twitch, 36% are more likely to subscribe to Apple TV, and 32% are more likely to stream ESPN+.
Unmarried parents are much more likely to be opposed to getting the vaccine or hesitant to
get the vaccine than married parents. There are 54,442,635 parents who are hesitant to get the vaccine or refuse to get the vaccine; and 31,257,870 -- or 57.4% -- are unmarried parents.
Younger people are also less likely to be engaged. Fifty-six percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 are hesitant or refuse to take the vaccine.
- Vaccine Hesitant (18-34) -
22,405,259 (32%)
- Vaccine Refusal (18-34) - 16,732,546 (24%)