LET’S STAND TOGETHER AGAINST VIRAL OUTBREAKS

Short List
TitleLET’S STAND TOGETHER AGAINST VIRAL OUTBREAKS
BrandNATIONAL SECURITY COORDINATION SECRETARIAT
Product / ServiceGOVERNMENT
CategoryB13. Content Led Engagement & Marketing
EntrantOGILVY PUBLIC RELATIONS WORLDWIDE Singapore, SINGAPORE
PR OGILVY PUBLIC RELATIONS WORLDWIDE Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation OGILVY PUBLIC RELATIONS WORLDWIDE Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Suliana Abdullah Hogarth&Ogilvy Singapore Project Manager
Michael Simpson Hogarth&Ogilvy Singapore Senior Project Executive
Chen YiLong Hogarth&Ogilvy Singapore Head of Art
Nicholas Cocks Hogarth&Ogilvy Singapore Head of Copy
Shayne Pooley Hogarth & Ogilvy Executive Creative Director

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

Brand directed Content (Week 1&2; tapers off from Week 3): 3D-animated, Singlish-speaking germs revealed how our decisions affects others. Concurrently, the germs took over online banners, transport media (in-train, platform door stickers, bus stop digital TVCs) to remind Singaporeans they have a choice to spread sickness. To reach those beyond our community, we partnered The Smart Local to create a video and online listicle “10 Signs You Are Chionging (read: working) Too Hard” exposing Singaporeans’ insecurities. Consumer and stakeholder-directed content (Builds from Week 4; Peaks in Week 5-6): Articles on presenteeism sparked conversation on Facebook. Commenters highlighted social pressures they faced which turned into discussions evolving into a more supportive community. On mainstream media, human resource experts, psychologists, employers, employees discussed about social stigma and ways to address productivity. Fans further condemned irresponsible behaviour by captioning stills of our germ characters and shared it as e-Cards.

Behaviour and advocacy increased above the general average of 2-5% (refer: PDF Slide4 No.3): • 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 Slide4 No.4). 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

The objective was to create advocates for presenteeism: 1. Seeding funny, sharable material that repositioned the individual relevance of national security. This was done by introducing an unexpected campaign personality to facilitate reach through social sharing. 2. Evolve discussions to emphasise topic gravity i.e. business and societal consequences 3. Facilitate social advocacy in a convenient and entertaining way Content ownership and permutation of engagement channels evolved over time (refer: Slide 4 PDF No.2): Brand-directed content, Week 1-2: Kicked off with #EXGERMINATION germs video discussion series - on social media, out-of-home and digital advertising platforms to get the conversation started on presenteeism. 50-50 brand-directed and user-generated content, Week 3-4: The germs sparked such heated discussion within and beyond our community that fans began to take ownership. Fan and stakeholder-directed content, Week 5-6: Focus turned to presenteeism solution-finding debates on social channels, mainstream media and dark social till end campaign.

Links

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