It’s not easy to tell an entire county to take care of themselves. Let’s be real — people are just not fond of going to the doctor. And for different reasons. But when Dallas County approached us for two health-centered campaigns, we felt totally up to the task.
COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach
With the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, it seemed like groups would flock to healthcare centers to get vaccinated, eager to return back to a life without isolation. But skepticism and mistrust quickly became an overriding sentiment, tanking the expected momentum of vaccine adoption. Residents of Dallas County were hesitant, unsure if this was a safe or smart choice.
While many did get the shot, plenty were still unconvinced. In October 2021, Dallas County had only 469,000+ residents vaccinated (out of over 2 million!) with hospitals at or near capacity every day when ABI was tapped to lead COVID-19 vaccine marketing for Dallas County.
Our challenge was to communicate the importance of getting vaccinated, where to get the vaccine, and dispel fear and misinformation. The unvaccinated have intelligent reasons why they didn’t want to receive the vaccine, so we had to make the case for why getting it would be better than not getting it. For many, it was how do we tip the scales. But we also wanted to do it in a way that respected their research and reasons and didn’t make anyone feel ashamed or embarrassed because of their hesitation
So we had to stay fact-focused so they would consider getting the shot. Our creative focused on the people they cared about most and the risks of not getting vaccinated. We flipped the attention to the heroic spin of getting vaccinated for their loved ones, creating the “Heroes Get Vaccinated” campaign. It consisted of TV spots in both in English and Spanish, along with radio, paid social media, and in-person activations.
This campaign was successful in many ways. Not only did we see a rise in people getting vaccinated, but the campaign won multiple awards including an ADDY for our “Heroes Get Vaccinated” video.
End HIV Epidemic
More than a million people in the U.S. have HIV and the numbers are increasing. But the landscape is not the same as the HIV spread of the 1980s. It’s now possible to envision a world in the near future where we prevent new diagnoses of HIV. There are medications to prevent getting HIV and to keep someone from transmitting HIV. The final leg on the stool — you can now get tested to see if you have HIV 24 hours a day. Those three facts are the foundation behind Dallas County’s commitment to the End HIV Epidemic by 2030, joining groups all across the nation.
Having HIV is not the death sentence that it once was. And HIV is not confined to a specific gender or sexual orientation. Women account for almost 18% of those with HIV; 1 in 8 people are living with HIV and don’t even know and unfortunately, 60% of teens who have it don’t know it. This is why we had to get a simple, urgent message out: Talk. Test. PrEP. Treat.
Our challenge was making sure we got the message to everyone because anyone can be at risk for HIV. We relied on our method Audience 360 to focus on an audience that needed to know, to find the groups that haven’t been spoken to directly or at all.
We accomplished this by targeting messages to women, teens, and other groups that need to know how crucial HIV education and knowledge is. Plus, this gives us a chance to adapt creative to the nuance of each segment. We can target these groups and others with simple messaging and captivating imagery that would speak to them. We want to spread positive and educational messages through a fully informative site that boasts facts, busts myths, provide informative videos and provide anyone seeking to know more about HIV the resources and data they need.
We want those who are living with HIV and those who want to support them to see the site as a valuable source of help. And thanks to Dallas County, we’re getting all the resources necessary to make this happen.
You can see more at endhivdallascounty.org where we’re always hard at work updating the site and content to keep everyone up-to-date and in the know.