Background:
Washington State has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates for entry into kindergarten in the USA. This not only leaves kids unprotected, but also puts whole communities at risk of contracting and spreading nasty diseases.
Vax Northwest, a public and private partnership, worked with BC/DC Ideas to create a communications campaign to amplify positive chatter about vaccines and engage pro-vaccine parents to speak up about immunizations.
Our Approach
There was already plenty of fear and uncertainty around vaccines, we weren’t going to pile on more scare tactics. Our plan was to mount a campaign with a grassroots, community approach—parents talking to parents and neighbors sharing conversations over the fence.
By empowering advocate parents with information, they could build trust with vaccine-wary parents through one-on-one conversations, instead of the typical top-down communication from the state health department.
Bringing The Plan To Life
Our first job was to give this program and name and look. We took the medically common term “community immunity” and flipped it around to reflect what we were trying to build with this program. We created the color palette to be bright, hopeful and vibrant to make the materials approachable and, most importantly, shareable.
The Parent Action Guide
The foundation of the program is a comprehensive action guide full of facts and talking points to help navigate conversations about vaccines. The spiral-bound piece was made small, sturdy and wipeable to weather daily life as a parent.
Extending the Campaign
To spread the message, we created a small notebook, buttons, t-shirts, flyers and a poster. All these items are fitted with a QR code so parents can easily access the latest information about vaccines.
