Washington State Department of Health
In January 2022, vaccine data tracking showed that only 67% of the Black/African American community in Washington state had been vaccinated against COVID-19, which was 17% behind the overall vaccination rate in WA. It was time to get to work.
Together with the Anchor Group, C+C helped to assemble a team of Black researchers, creatives, health educators, and community engagement specialists to work on the campaign. The idea here was to start a new conversation and build trust by elevating the voices of the Black community in a campaign developed by a team of Black professionals.
The first thing to do was address the lack of trust many in the Black/African American community had toward government-funded research. To address this, the team shifted the management of the process away from the Department of Health to within the community. We assembled unvaccinated Black/African Americans to gather feedback on what was causing our audience to avoid vaccination.
There were two takeaways: 1) the community didn’t trust the government or the vaccines, but they were very motivated in protecting friends, family and fellow neighbors, 2) hearing from those neighbors was much more motivating than hearing facts and data.
From these insights, the WeConsider campaign was created. The campaign centered on encouraging community members who were not vaccinated to reconsider their vaccine decision and featured first-hand accounts from local individuals who had initially been hesitant but ultimately chose to get the vaccine. These conversations were honest in their distrust, but heartfelt in what overcame that distrust...love for family and community.
The messages were delivered through community partnerships and events, faith-based outreach, media relations, Black media, paid Black micro-influencers and paid advertising. A dedicated website was also created — WeConsiderWA.org — where, yes, people could learn about the COVID-19 vaccine, but learn it within the context of the Black/African American experience.
The Outcome:
• Increase vaccination among the adult Black/African American community by 15 percentage points from 67% to 82% vaccinated)
• Closed the vaccination gap between the Black/African American community and all Washington adults by 13%
• Delivered 15,000 social media engagements and 68 million completed video views.
• Won Multiple Awards from PR Week to the Social Marketing Association of North America