Exploring all information available to inform the design of the local message for our campaign including:

Primary

National information:

• What is the confirmed eligibility cohort for the COVID-19 vaccination?
• What resources and messages are available for the campaign nationally?
• What is the national message this year – ‘Boost your immunity.

Secondary

Southwest Regional information:

• What are other areas doing for their campaign – market research
• What is working well?

Localised intel

Using more localised inteligence about the vaccine and uptake inlcuding:

• What do we know about vaccine uptake in Dorset?
• Where and who should we focus our efforts on for increasing uptake – what is the direction from the operational cell at NHS Dorset?
• Data from Public Health Dorset dashboard – confirming which cohorts and areas we should focus health inequalities efforts.
• Insights work, community engagement. Feedback from members of the public at engagement events told us that they switched off from the national messaging.

Service background

The vaccination communications officer role sits within Dorset HealthCare, supporting the Integrated Vaccination Service who deliver COVID vaccinations through a network of community-based clinics, as well as house visits and care home visits.

The system wide COVID communications responsibility also sits within this role, as the lead provider. They are responsible for creating and sharing key messages, resources, and artwork for partner organisations in Dorset, to public and charity sector organisations as well as other vaccine delivery sites such as GPs and pharmacies. 

Aim of campaign

To create a localised COVID-19 message to encourage Dorset public and health and social care workforce to get their booster vaccine. Focusing mainly on those that may need a bit of a nudge, helping people to engage with the vaccination service and get the jabs they are eligible for. Based loosely on the national message ‘boost your immunity’ develop a message that, acknowledging vaccine apathy, has an impact locally.

Service design method - an illustration

This illustration demonstrates that most people know about COVID-19 and are aware of the vaccine, mostly those eligible for their booster vaccine will also be aware. Development and roll out of a local campaign, supports the Dorset vaccination service to help people engage with the programme and ultimately get their booster to protect themselves and those around them from the virus. 

Audience

For each season the cohort of people eligible is released by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Usually with this information being shared with local systems very close to go live dates. 

During the autumn/winter programmes health and social care staff are also eligible to get both their COVID and flu vaccinations. 

Communication timelines

This flowchart shows the commuincations process for creating and sharing key messages with partner organisations helping to promote, staff and eliible members of pubic. 

Schedule of sharing messages:

1. Local artwork and key messages established for campaign (including print and digital)
2. Stakeholder updates 
3. Press releases 
4. Key areas of focus for system to support  - share any new content created inc, videos, images, articles, blurb 
5. Social media themed weeks throughout the programme 

Autumn 2022

August – planning phase and gathering content

September – launch of autumn/winter campaign

October – December – vaccinating phase, continued messaging and promotion of additional pop-up clinics

December – promote walk in appointments as booked appointments ease and health inequalities pop ups

January – mop up clinic’s promotion

Spring 2023

February – planning phase and gathering content

March – launch of spring campaign

April – June – vaccinating phase, continued messaging and promotion of additional pop-up clinics

Autumn 2023

August – planning phase and gathering content

September – launch of autumn/winter campaign

October – December – vaccinating phase, continued messaging and promotion of additional pop-up clinics

November - Children's community vaccination clinics open

December – promote walk in appointments as booked appointments ease and health inequalities pop ups

Autumn 2022

Designing the artwork and coming up with the original concept led by comms officer. Working together and leading brainstorming and creative sessions with in-house designers across the system a partnership working example that is not often used for design within Dorset NHS currently. Mocks ups and working drafts discussed and refined with regular touch points with operational teams and system leads. 

Development of a campaign toolkit for sharing of assets. 

Spring 2023

A refresh of the artwork, to include more white space giving the spring campaign a slightly fresh look and feel with the same brand and message. New artwork and resources shared.

Autumn 2023

Commincations officer secured additional funding to have a photoshoot with local people and local staff, with a focus on Dorset faces, places and spaces to help localised our campaign even further. Encouraging people to recognise themselves in the message.

Creation of a new suite of artwork and resources shared. 

With further resources added focusing on local places and spaces as the main image, in programme and shared - 

Following on from the success of our local campaigns for autumn 2022 and spring 2023. We will continue our approach to communicating about COVID-19 (and flu) to our key audiences and use a range of channels to share key messages. Our overarching strategy is to promote who is eligible, how and where people can get their jabs and convey the benefit of taking up these vaccinations this autumn/winter.  

As the lead organisation (for communications) we continue to work closely with NHS Dorset SVOC team and system partners to ensure messaging is factual and reflects our local offer.  

Stakeholder updates are sent regularly throughout the campaign phase together with press releases to encourage media opportunities. 

The website is our shop window and where our key audiences will go first to find out information. All content available on the Dorset COVID-19 Vaccination Service webpages to be regularly reviewed and updated https://www.dorsethealthcare.nhs.uk/covid-19-vaccination-service. 

A resource toolkit will be created and shared with all partners and other relevant stakeholders (e.g., Public Health Dorset, local authorities, GPs) providing localised messages and assets for them to populate their own channels and share including social media.

Videos will be created highlighting the importance of immunisations which can be shared across a range of channels.

Radio advertising with Greatest Hits Radio – reaching our target audience across the county.

Paid for advertising in printed and/or online publications can target key audiences, as well as Facebook advertising subject to the availability of funding.

N.B Primary and secondary school aged flu vaccines are run by the School Age Immunisation Service, part of Dorset HealthCare’s Integrated Vaccination Service. The service is supported by the vaccination communications officer and has its own communications plan that runs alongside the ‘Give yourself a Boost’ wider campaign. Please see webpages for more information and resources.  https://www.dorsethealthcare.nhs.uk/schoolageimms

COMMS CONTENT PLAN 2023

Autumn and winter COVID-19 booster and flu vaccine

Example of staff vaccination comms content for September 2023

External campaign – public facing

To measure the success of the campaign I will look at the number of:

Stakeholder bulletins, press releases sent, media articles and radio interviews, social media shares and likes, webpage hits and ultimately number of jabs given.

Internal campaign- health and social care (H&SC) staff (autumn only – H&SC workers were not eligible for spring 2023 covid-19 booster).

All staff bulletins, intranet news articles, number of staff Facebook posts, social media interactions, approx. appointments made. 

Measuring success of both campaigns using google analytics data and Meta data to track campaign reach and traction.

External digital campaigns

Internal campaign – autumn 22 only (as health and social care staff were not eligible for spring covid-19 booster and autmn 2023 is still running).

Analysing the findings

Boosted campaigns, gave us the most return on investment allowing the campaign to reach more people.

Social media posts did receive a few negative reactions and comments on Facebook from people who are against vaccinations.

Community engagement is key for sharing resources and information within communities.

Learning to take forward for next time

Benchmarking having a base line, logic modelling to help measure outcomes against initial assumptions. Boosted posts on social media work well for reach, budget for professional videos. Regular review checks – how is it going, anything to do more of anything to stop, add walk in clinics to Grab a jab site as soon as possible.

Summary and reflections

From planning and delivering the first autumn campaign a lot of learning was fed into the following spring campaign such as what was format was most engaged with, to what information the local population were telling us they were looking for. Continuing to strengthen our localised campaign message ‘Give yourself a boost’ with a slight introduction of more white space, local people and spaces in the artwork as we moved through the next two seasonal campaigns.

Establishing links with partners across the Dorset system has been key. Utilising established networks and groups to share messages and promote the service through many channels reaching those that are digitally savvy as well as some of the more traditional routes such as radio and print.

With the national guidance often sent with short notice and information around eligibility for a booster vaccine quite complicated, we kept our local message as timely and simple as we could for maximum engagement.

With regular messaging to the public, stakeholders and staff including any changes to clinic dates and times as these shifts and change due to the demand and need of the service across the county. Having an ear to the ground with operational developments and teams as a comms officer I can ensure messages are timely and information available on our webpages and other channels is up to date.

The spring 2023 campaign was smaller, due to less people being eligible for this booster jab the autumn winter campaigns shared a message about flu together with COVID-19 vaccines and for the latest campaign staff and public were able to receive these together in the same appointment.  

With money and budgets tight, access to health inequalities funding was a real lifeline which I taped into to secure additional funding to do a paid for radio campaign to sit alongside the print and digital elements.