COVID vaccine hesitancy is high in South Carolina, so to dispel myths and encourage inoculation, a wide-reaching public service campaign was needed. The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) deployed such an effort on social media in which it enlisted a swath of messengers to post materials across a range of social platforms.
Special Report: Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
How South Carolina used social media to curb vaccine hesitancy
The state’s departments of Health and Education are winners of Social Media Campaign of the Year, gold, advocacy, Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards 2023
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The COVID-19 vaccination campaign reached residents of South Carolina on social media.
Credit:
SCDHEC
Credit:
SCDHEC
The two departments, which worked alongside agencies XOMAD and Chernoff Newman, won gold for Social Media Campaign of the Year among advocacy organizations in the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards 2023.
SCDE and SCDHEC targeted parents of children aged 5-11 via a team of 258 local messengers, who took to platforms including Instagram Stories to distribute materials that championed vaccination. The nearly 1,000 different posts blended pre-made PSA images with personalized content from the messengers, with a focus on providing easily digestible information for a range of audiences.
The departments reported that the campaign ultimately reached more than 2.5 million South Carolinians, resulting in an increase in child COVID vaccinations that exceeded increases in surrounding states with similar demographics by more than 25%.
