Overview
Between 2020 and early 2023, LPA served as the strategic messaging and earned media lead on California’s “Your Actions Save Lives” and “Vaccinate All 58” public awareness campaigns. Together with ad agency RSE, Sensis and numerous ethnic media consultants, the effort aimed to reach and educate vulnerable, hard-to-reach Californians on the latest COVID-19 public health guidelines and to arm them with information on vaccine safety, effective and access.
Goals of the Campaign
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) launched the “Your Actions Save Lives” campaign to educate vulnerable, hard-to reach Californians on the latest COVID-19 public health guidelines and encourage harm mitigating behavior. With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, the state rededicated its efforts to fight COVID-19 through the “Vaccinate All 58” campaign that helped get information on the importance and safety of COVID-19 vaccinations to all 58 counties of California.
Strategic Approach
Through messaging and earned media efforts, LPA and its partners aimed to elevate the importance of harm mitigation and vaccinations among both statewide and regional audiences by highlighting the direct impacts that positive behavior could have on fighting back the pandemic and saving lives. This effort was aligned with a larger consultant team that included a major paid awareness campaign arm. Early on in both campaigns, LPA developed strategic partnerships with ethnic media and trusted community-rooted spokespeople to deliver key messages related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This included developing resonant messages, recruiting trusted messengers and working with statewide and ethnic media to meet Californians where they are.
LPA worked closely with the Governor’s Office, California Health and Human Services Agency, California Department of Public Health, the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications and the Office of the Surgeon General on strategy, crisis communications and reputation management, message development and media training.
Results
The campaign’s earned media strategy helped garner more than 2,000 media placements to-date in more than 13 languages and hundreds of outlets across the state and nation, utilizing a speakers bureau with more than 170 trained messengers.
LPA’s strategic message development facilitated keeping all partners, including the state, coordinated with responsive messaging to stay on the cutting edge of the constantly evolving pandemic and keep Californians healthy.
