Excellence in Patient/Consumer Health Programmes

Summary of work

Capturing the attention of adolescents is difficult at the best of times. Add health advice and the words meningococcal meningitis into the mix and the challenge is even greater.

This was the task facing the makers of a meningococcal meningitis vaccine needing to educate 15-24-year olds – the second highest at-risk group in the UK – to act in protecting themselves against the disease which can prove fatal within 24 hours.

Original research revealed adolescents would listen and act on health advice when it was delivered via social channels or by their favourite vloggers and bloggers. The idea? If we couldn’t make them look up and listen, we would engage them via social media instead - #24YouHaveThePower was born.

Using a proprietary tool, we applied a unique methodology to pinpoint the influencers most effective at engaging and motivating adolescents and their parents to act.

In a campaign first, the client boldly granted full creative licence to ten influencers, armed with just five meningitis facts to help create authentic content with no paid promotion. Significantly, the vast array of authentic content achieved resulted in positive brand engagement, which a pharmaceutical company would find unachievable on its own.

The strategy paid off. #24YouHaveThePower smashed every success metric set.

Judges' comments

The judges loved the #24YouHaveThePower entry. It was authentic and it showed a strong initiative with good metrics. It was compelling, innovative and tactical and the outcome to encourage individuals to seek out information was successful. It measured intent as well as actual behavioural change.