The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs has received a Silver 2024 Anthem Award, the organization announced this morning, for a fast-paced, football-themed campaign designed by the CCP-led Breakthrough ACTION program to promote COVID-19 and routine vaccinations in several African countries earlier this year.
Across Africa, routine childhood immunization rates plummeted during the pandemic and many people opted not to get COVID-19 vaccinations. The #TeamVaccine campaign, sponsored by USAID, which was promoted during the widely popular Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) football tournament in January and February, encouraged men to become more involved in the health of their families.
Radio and TV spots, posters and more reached more than 9.4 million people online and more than two-thirds of people engaging with #TeamVaccine on X/Twitter were men. Notably, the campaign’s social sentiment was 100 percent positive/neutral. Beyond online engagement, the campaign also resulted in more than 13,500 people receiving vaccinations during a handful of community-based events in Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique and Cameroon held during the tournament.
“Not only was this campaign fun to watch, but it also reminded millions of people of the benefits of vaccinations, routine and otherwise,” says Beth Mallalieu, CCP senior program officer. “To be recognized for this hard work by the Anthem Awards is a true honor and we hope that the renewed attention on the campaign will encourage even more people to ensure they and their families are vaccinated.”
The 4th annual Anthem Awards honor the purpose and mission-driven work of people, companies, and organizations worldwide. “By amplifying the voices that spark global change, we’re defining a new benchmark for impactful work that inspires others to take action in their own communities,” according to the Anthem website. The #TeamVaccine campaign earned its silver medal in the Global Awareness Campaign category.
Among the other winners announced is Public Health on Call, a podcast produced by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which took home gold. GLAAD, Planned Parenthood, Jelly Roll, Everytown for Gun Safety, the Obama Foundation and World Central Kitchen were also among the winners.
For #TeamVaccine, one of the spots featured prominent sports broadcasters narrating in ever more excited voices the journey toward vaccination as a family dodges barriers to immunization before the climax where the child receives her shot at the health facility. Another dramatically shows a husband and his pregnant wife getting her COVID-19 vaccine and, afterward, him celebrating with his hands above his head in victory as he races down the corridor.
Given it was going to air for a very short period during a large football tournament, when all eyes are on the game, the project sought to create something eye-catching and memorable that people would talk about and act on, Mallalieu says.
“The end result was trying to reframe vaccination as something being worthy of the same passion and emotion as football,” according to Khanga Rue, the design agency that Breakthrough ACTION worked with on the campaign. “It is rooted in an insight that works both on the superficial level – men get very excited and emotional about football – and on a much deeper level, that men, outside of football, are not often demonstrative of their emotions around family.”
The highly successful campaign’s social media led to high engagement, with people sharing and liking posts, but also sharing their own experiences about vaccination and thoughts about male engagement, showing they understood the message resonated with it.
“Audiences across the four countries received the campaign positively,” the final report details. “It led to in-person and online discussions about vaccination and successfully led some individuals to get vaccinated. … The use of humor also possibly made the spots more memorable, leading to people wanting to engage with them, share them more often with their friends, and discuss them.”
Using the Premise platform, more than 3,000 people from across the four countries were surveyed at the end of the campaign. Among those who had seen the campaign, 69 percent responded it had influenced them and their behaviors.
One participant from Nigeria shared how their experience with the campaign encouraged them to discuss vaccination with others around them.
“I was at home watching TV when I saw the campaign message, so it inspired me to talk about vaccination,” the man said. “The importance of vaccination for a family, especially when you have kids growing up, they need to be vaccinated against various kinds of diseases. So, I had to discuss it with my brother and my friend.”
The #Team Vaccine campaign has also received a 2024 MarCom Platinum award from the international Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, a People’s Telly Silver award for the TV commercial that aired in Nigeria, and a Gold award and the top prize, Grand Prix, from the ad agency TBWA.
