"It's Up to You." COVID-19 Vaccine Education Campaign

The campaign tagline - "It's Up to You." - emphasises the role of choice in the vaccination decision, rather than trying to impose a mandatory or forced outcome, an approach that might backfire among hesitant communities. It is up to individuals not only to make their own decision but to inform themselves by gathering accurate information about the vaccine. The campaign seeks to help them do just this.

The national campaign is producing an array of English and Spanish ads for TV, billboards, bus shelters, social media, and publications that will continue throughout 2021. Print versions show an adhesive bandage framing the words "It's Up to You." One video spot shows a series of illustrated arms of different colours and one robotic, all with a bandage on the upper arm, blending in to a mosaic of the US map. "You've got questions. And that's normal" reads another ad - reflective of the campaign's empathetic approach that reaffirms that it's understandable to have questions about the new vaccines. A few of the ads are expected to feature celebrities and officials like infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.

All campaign materials urge audiences to visit GetVaccineAnswers.org (DeTiDepende.org in Spanish) to get the facts about COVID-19 vaccines in seven languages, with the ultimate goal of helping the public feel prepared to get vaccinated once a vaccine is available to them. It serves as an information hub to help consumers make an informed decision for themselves and their families about COVID-19 vaccines.

The effort includes tools and resources, events, and point-of-care and point-of-purchase educational materials specifically for church leaders, doctors, pharmacists, and others in Black and Hispanic communities. For example, to kick off the initiative, the Ad Council partnered with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to host UNMASKED: A COVID-19 Virtual Town Hall Series, where policymakers, researchers, and medical experts share information on the coronavirus pandemic, treatments, and vaccines. To cite another example: Registration is open for a special edition of a podcast on Hispanicize on March 12 2021 featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci, Beto Perez, John Leguizamo, Karen Martinez, Luis Guzman, and others.

In collaboration with Values Partnerships, the initiative has also developed a strategy to engage the faith community. It has established a National Faith Steering Committee to inform efforts, participate in campaign content and events, and help disseminate educational resources. This committee includes major national faith-based organisations (FBOs) and over 20 faith leaders across the Black and Hispanic faith communities. The initiative includes a public service announcement (PSA) developed by JOY Collective and Values Partnerships and a national vaccine education event, specially developed for the Black and Hispanic faith communities, on March 9 2021. In addition, the Ad Council is collaborating with Choose Health Life (CHL) to address public health disparities in the Black community centred around the Black church.

Overall, partnership is a major element of this effort. "It's Up to You." involves a large partnership between the public health, marketing, and media communities to amplify public health messages. The CDC brand is included on select creative assets, and, along with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the CDC is providing scientific guidance on all aspects of the campaign. The COVID Collaborative is engaging many of its members, who represent the diversity of the country, to help with dissemination, and they are connecting the campaign to governors and other leaders in states. In fact, brands, media companies, and social platforms and services are developing custom content and donating media to extend the "It's Up To You" message, connecting their audiences with vetted information about the COVID-19 vaccines. Partners/examples include:

• Adobe will work with their diverse creator community to commission artwork for the campaign to connect with underrepresented groups.
• Apple will help the Ad Council keep customers informed about the benefits of the vaccine through its services, such as the App Store, Apple Music, and Apple News.
• Black Entertainment Television (BET) is creating a BET News COVID-19 special and leveraging its platforms to promote and live-stream UNMASKED: A COVID-19 Virtual Town Hall.
• BIN: Black Information Network is launching "It's Up To You" Vaccine Education Week and will provide a week of dedicated programming designed to spark meaningful conversation fueled by trusted news and information within Black communities.
• Complex Networks will develop custom content to reach its 70 million+ (monthly) multicultural audience and will donate media to support these assets across Complex Networks' properties.
• Disney will leverage resources across a variety of its platforms (ABC, ESPN, Freeform, FX, Hulu, National Geographic) to support "It's Up To You" PSAs.
• Facebook is donating production for an in-market messaging campaign with a suite of creative assets that will run across Facebook and Instagram and provide donated media throughout the campaign.
• FOX will create a series of "It's Up To You" PSAs and donate media inventory across its entertainment, sports, and news platforms.
• Google/YouTube is integrating the Ad Council's vaccine campaign into their larger "Get the Facts" COVID-19 vaccine marketing efforts and is providing advertisers with support, insights, resources to scale their message using Google and YouTube platforms and tools.
• Holler is producing "It's Up To You" content to run in donated conversational media.
• IBM Watson Advertising is contributing its artificial intelligence (AI) creative technology, Accelerator, to provide research insights, creating digital banner content for this testing and donating media across weather.com and The Weather Channel app.
• iHeartMedia is providing the campaign's official suite of English and Spanish audio assets, which are available for other audio companies to use across their platforms.
• LinkedIn is advising the Ad Council on creative and media strategies for COVID-19 vaccine ads to help companies reach the right audiences with the information needed to have informed discussions about the vaccines.
• NBCUniversal and Telemundo are creating custom video and banner assets in both English and Spanish for support across the NBCUniversal ecosystem, also made available to other networks.
• Outcome Health is creating educational content about the COVID-19 vaccines for vaccine-hesitant groups, including Black and Hispanic communities.
• Pandora's in-house creative consultancy, Studio Resonate, is creating custom audio ads to run within donated media inventory across Pandora, SiriusXM, and SoundCloud.
• Pinterest is working to inspire COVID-19 vaccine education and confidence by providing access to trusted expert content on the platform.
• Salesforce is supporting the campaign with a live segment on its "Leading Through Change" series, airing March 4 2021.
• Sesame Workshop is developing custom PSAs in English and Spanish for adults and families, featuring their iconic characters.
• Snapchat is creating custom augmented reality (AR) content and providing donated media.
• Spotify is producing custom audio PSAs and messaging points to promote COVID-19 vaccine awareness and education, distributed across donated media on its free tier and integrated into podcasts on its platform.
• TikTok is producing content featuring TikTok creators and integrating the "It's Up To You." campaign in their in-app COVID-19 information hub.
• Twitter is developing a custom hash-emoji on behalf of the campaign and will also host and spotlight a live Q&A on their platform featuring a medical expert to address COVID-19 vaccine questions.
• Twitch will produce a custom video PSA to promote COVID-19 vaccine awareness and education, distributing the video via donated media across the live streaming service.
• Unilever is integrating the initiative into their annual Day of Service and amplifying it with paid and earned media, retail tie-ins, and a broader employee and Unilever partner programme.
• Verizon is developing a digital campaign extension of "It's Up To You," which will focus on inviting other brands to join in and support the effort.
• ViacomCBS is running PSAs across its broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms and producing custom video and social assets tailored for their unique audiences.
• Walmart is donating media across TV walls, organic social, and display ads.
• WarnerMedia is co-creating PSAs with their in-house 10th Street Production Company, supporting them across the WarnerMedia and AT&T video ecosystem and making them available to other media properties as well.

The campaign is based on ongoing research to understand audience mindsets and how to effectively message to build vaccine confidence. This included consulting with a network of experts in public health, health communications, and marketing, as well as qualitative and quantitative research conducted in partnership with Ahzul, Facebook, Feedback Loop, IBM Watson Advertising, Ipsos Public Affairs, and Nielsen. Insights from this research is fueling the initiative's creative, media, digital, and partnership strategies. Dentsu Health, dentsu Americas' integrated health practice, worked pro bono to develop consumer insights and the national media strategy.

Immunisation and Vaccines, COVID-19

Some scientists estimate that more than 2 in 3 Americans will need to get vaccinated to stop the epidemic, which as of March 2021 has killed more than 500,000 people in the US. Ad Council research fielded by Ipsos Public Affairs in February 2021 reveals that approximately 40% of the US public have not yet made a firm decision to get vaccinated as soon as vaccines are available to them. Approximately three-quarters of consumers who are undecided say they want information to address their questions about the vaccines, even if vaccines are not yet available to them.

In addition, the data illustrate the need for a tailored effort to reach communities of colour, where there is considerable distrust in the government and medical community and high hesitancy toward the vaccines. The Ad Council's research shows that Black and Hispanic Americans who are undecided are significantly less confident they have enough information to guide their decision about getting a COVID-19 vaccination, compared to those intending to get vaccinated.

Along those lines, Kelli Richardson Lawson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), JOY Collective, commented: "As a Black and woman-owned agency, we are proud to partner with the Ad Council to lead the campaign efforts within the Black community. With a multifaceted creative, digital, social, events and grassroots campaign focused on educating the Black community in a credible, culturally relevant way, while inspiring them to 'get back to' we all miss so much. Our goal is to help the Black community get the facts, despite their inherent distrust in the government and medical community and help them make an informed decision about COVID-19 vaccines."