The Campaign

Instead of forcing people to “do the right thing”, we took social judgement between people out of the equation by showing they had a common enemy to fight. It was a simple idea to bring the hidden enemy to life. We fashioned germ characters out of the top five diseases in Singapore – influenza, tuberculosis, hand-foot-mouth, pneumonia, meningitis – and let the viewer in on germs plotting a take-over of the human race. Key to the germs’ battle strategy was to look for people who still turned up at work when sick, or who didn’t wear a mask when they should. The idea allowed viewers to get involved in the world of germs (or not). It was an exercise in self-reflection through entertainment. They saw why our enemy loved our bad habits. And how when we did the right thing with the people around us, the enemy's efforts were thwarted.

Execution

#EXGERMINATION ran from 15 February to 08 May 2016 in two phases: • Germs Attack piqued mass interest in a boring topic and created situational relevance. • Let’s Stand Together delved into the problems of presenteeism and got people contributing ways to change the system. Phase 1 Germs Attack The conversation kicked-off with the video series of 3D-animated, Singlish-speaking germs. The Smart Local team pointed out bad habits amongst us with their listicle “10 Signs You Are Chionging (read: working) Too Hard”. Through revealing street interviews, they also exposed Singaporeans’ insecurities. Phase 2 Let’s Stand Together The action continued on Facebook. Users condemned irresponsible behaviour and captioned screenshots of the germ characters in support of #Exgermination and shared it as e-Cards. Presenteeism hit mainstream media with multi-faceted opinions and discussions. HR experts, psychologists, employers and employees spoke about social stigma, organisational limitations, and discussed ways to address productivity.

Behaviour and advocacy increased above the general average of 2-5% (refer: PDF Slide 3 No.2): • Up to 12% more people encouraged others to stay clear of people when sick; • 11% more people steered clear of family members when sick, • 21% more people recognise their own actions can help contain the spread of outbreaks (refer: PDF Slide3 No.3). Top-tier media outlets like The Straits Times, 938LIVE, Kiss92FM, Capital 958, Channel NewsAsia featured our campaign key messages. Marketers recognised #EXGERMINATION as a “government video” worth watching. Viewers wrote to TODAY Voices commending the presenteeism feature. LST community grew by an average of 39 each day (16% increase March – May), without running “Page Like” ads. The Germs reached over 142,000 views, 377,000 people, 3,000 shares in 4 days, 1million view in 3 months. The content partnership reached 50,267 video views, 102,172 people beyond our usual national security interest community.

The Situation

Public relations is about building beneficial relationships between an entity and their publics –methods of engaging influencers that result in an earned effect to change people’s perception and reaction toward the entity. The problem of Singaporeans not taking off when sick is systemic. It is rooted in culture – at work, within family and in our minds. To get someone to go home when sick, teachers, bosses, parents, CEOs, colleagues, classmates have to enable the sick one to do so. We needed public relations for every present and future sick person - so their “publics” would not see them.

The Strategy

There were four representative personas the campaign was tailored for. The boss under pressure to get his team to deliver. The mum who worries that her child will struggle to catch up in class. The executive unwilling to take “off” even when running a fever. The self-employed hawker or taxi driver who braves the flu for their keep. All of them were used to being told what to do by the government, so the approach had to prevent stonewalling of our message. But we wanted to do more. To motivate Singaporeans to enable others taking “off” when sick (the call-to-action), we adopted a three-fold strategy. 1. Employed reverse messaging by letting the germs make the point. This enabled non-subjective self-reflection of actions. 2. Use of Singaporean humour and Singlish to enable cultural-relevance and facilitate practical suggestions. 3. Encourage multi-perspective debates about the consequences of presenteeism at work, school and home.