Beat the Virus Social Movement
In early 2020, the. U.S. faced a series of challenges ranging from adopting social distancing to mass-scale coronavirus testing, caring for the sick, and eventually transitioning back into “normal” life in a responsible way.
During the initial phases of the virus, the news and social media buzz was fragmented and confusing, at best. Logical sources for trustworthy public health information were struggling to reach people with consistent, actionable, and updated information. Much of the U.S. population failed to abide by public health and safety recommendations, resulting in a spike in COVID-19 cases.
#BeatTheVirus was a volunteer initiative aimed to help guide people through these extraordinary challenges with critical, trusted, and engaging public health messages.
The Ask
Cut through the chaos of COVID-19 content in the media by creating content that is sharable, understandable, and engaging. Target millennials and Gen-Z in preparation for an impending Spring break surge in cases.
TIMELINE: 9 DAYS
The Process
Empathize & Define
Leveraged a network of public health experts to track the pandemic and recommend behaviors to help people stay healthy and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Activities:
Develop partnership plan
Conduct social listening to review current virus content
Develop influencer strategy
Concept & Design
We built a community of social influencers – artists, athletes, celebrities and creatives – who used their voices to amplify #BeatTheVirus. With their help, and content from the medical community, we created a social strategy to get our message to our target audience using only organic, earned media.
Activities:
Hold content creation workshop with medical advisors
Develop creative campaign content
Design campaign landing environment
Develop & Iterate
Stakeholder feedback was implemented, and the winning campaign and landing page idea was refined to be WCAG 2.0 AA compliant. All content was vetted and approved by experts at MIT and the U.S. Surgeons General Office.
Activities:
Concept refinement
Concept validation
Landing environment refinement
Usability testing
Deploy & Test
We deployed advanced media analytics to guide the delivery and evolution of our communications across U.S. audiences to support public understanding.
Activities:
Social listening
Engagement analysis
Ongoing content workshops
OUR PARTNERS
The Campaign
Within one month, the beat the virus movement earned over 200 million organic impressions. All influencer partner posts were unpaid, based on scientific fact, and created to spark action.
