Cutting through with targeted health messaging during coronavirus
With coronavirus casting a long shadow across every aspect of our lives, it should come as no surprise that the media landscape is more challenging than it has ever been.
So what’s the best way to cut-through the noise if you have a serious health message that you need to communicate quickly and effectively to your target audience?
Here’s how we worked together with our client, the British Tinnitus Association (BTA), to reach two specific target audiences with just a few days preparation.
The problem
Through anecdotal evidence, the BTA had become aware of a rise in people experiencing a worsening of their tinnitus symptoms over recent weeks.
They were also worried about the impact the potential loss of 22,000 weekly tinnitus appointments could have on people who might now not know where to turn to for help.
With internal capacity pushed to the limit for the BTA, getting the message out there was proving difficult.
The goal
We needed to offer reassurance to people experiencing tinnitus for the first time and to people whose symptoms had become worse due to stress and anxiety, and let both groups know that they could access support virtually through the BTA.
The approach
We worked closely with the British Tinnitus Association’s in-house communications team throughout this project and took the following steps together:
Information gathering - we built on the robust research that had already been gathered by the BTA, showing how stress, anxiety and loneliness - all common outcomes of the current situation - can exacerbate tinnitus symptoms and the number of tinnitus appointments that could be lost by the need for GP surgeries to focus on other things.
Messaging - we worked closely with the BTA to distil messaging down to two clear statements, each aimed at a distinct audience.
NB. Evergreen didn’t produce the imagery - but we think it’s great!
People of influence - as a strategic communications agency we know the value of powerful relationships with people and organisations of influence. The British Tinnitus Association has connections with many supporters who believe in their purpose and can help spread the word, and we made sure to utilise them.
Assets - we created a central set of website articles tailored to our target audience groups, template regional press releases using localised tinnitus statistics to help us reach the community media that would be the best vehicle for this story, the creative brief for a series of social media graphics and animations, and a strategy for paid social and PPC.
Implementation - we worked together to launch these assets and connect with journalists and influencers to help us spread the word.
The results
Targeting people and partners of influence was hugely successful and led to posts and stories from the likes of Samantha Baines (comedian/actor/author), Anne Savage (DJ), Age UK (charity) and Liam O Dell (reputable deaf journalist).
Our regional media approach led to articles in the Leicester Mercury, Sunderland Echo, Huddersfield Examiner, Sunday Post, North Edinburgh News and more.
The social media content we produced achieved a large spike in engagement and shares, showing that it was connecting well with its target audience.
In just three days, the lead website article for the mini-campaign had become the third most popular page on the British Tinnitus Association website, with other articles on the topic also landing in the top 10.
The activity was praised by the Chair of the Alliance for Hearing Loss as “very impressive”, which was hugely pleasing.
With the goal of the activity being to offer information, reassurance and support to people struggling with tinnitus at this challenging time, this targeted and timely response showed the importance of strategy to success.
Through clarity of message, an understanding of people of influence and best use of a variety of channels of communication, we were able to achieve a great outcome for the organisation and the people it serves.