What was the brief like?
COVID-19 came with so much uncertainty, fear, and interesting theories – some of which gave people reasons not to trust the vaccines developed to reduce the spread of the virus. In an effort to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst healthcare practitioners in Nigeria, our client (with the support of a global philanthropic organisation) required ID Africa to work with them as their multimedia content production partner.
Using the Fogg behavioural change model, we were tasked with producing multimedia content (videos, gifs, images, and static creatives) to be used by their consortium on Facebook.
Let’s talk about how you handled the brief.
Executing this brief required a whole lot of research and open-mindedness. Due to the unique nature of this campaign, I had to wear the hats of a content producer and project coordinator.
At the initial stage of the campaign, our team at ID Africa went through a six-week virtual training to acquaint ourselves with our client’s approach to achieving their objectives (i.e. increasing COVID-19 vaccination and reducing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among HCPs). We also received numerous research materials to help us understand the current situation of vaccine hesitancy among HCPs in the target states (Rivers State, Anambra State, Lagos State, Nasarawa State, and Ebonyi State).
After the training phase, we moved on to the experimentation stage where we began to create different pieces of content to be tested by the client as they kicked off their Facebook campaign. To ensure a smooth content production process, we put together a dedicated in-house creative team consisting of a client relations manager, a content producer, two writers, three creative designers, an art director, and two video editors.
As the project coordinator, I was more involved in researching content ideas, putting together content plans, reviewing content materials from other writers, getting the client’s approval on our ideas, then liaising with the creative design and video production team to turn those ideas into multimedia content formats. After producing the content materials, I was responsible for reviewing them and ensuring the team’s execution of all feedback from the client.
Unlike other content production briefs I had handled previously, creating content for this project took me out of my comfort zone. As someone without any medical or public health background, I had to pay keen attention when creating content because every piece of information had to be factually correct. On the other hand, a major challenge I encountered was tweaking the content pieces to make them ‘fun’ and ‘witty’ while maintaining the behavioural change models specified by the client.
Can you share some of the results or outcomes from this project?
Despite the difference in time zones (our clients were based in two different continents), we produced 93 pieces of multimedia content for their Facebook campaign and 72 of them were approved for use by their consortium over the three-months campaign period. According to the client’s feedback, some pieces of content were run at an extremely low cost and recorded a high engagement rate. Although this was a one-off campaign, I must say I really enjoyed working with the client as they were open to listening to our ideas and running A/B tests using our content materials rather than crossing things out at face value.
This project also gave me a sense of involvement in combating the spread of COVID-19 through public education.
What were your key lessons from this project?
As a young professional, I have learned that some projects exist to test you on all levels and you must put in the work to deliver beyond the client’s expectations. This campaign was one of those where I had to roll up my sleeves, put on my research cap, and get creative with my content plan. It was pretty interesting to pick up all the health-related information and statistics that fueled my content production.
What’s next for you over the next three months?
Work as usual. While I’m working with our content and creative team to produce content materials for Africa’s first-ever Public Relations and Communications Report, I’m also handling some client management tasks to ensure we produce and deliver high-quality content materials to aid the work our PR team members are doing for their clients. I’m also handling the production of The Bang! and Africa Facts (ID Africa’s newsletters), and more interesting things.
Did you acquire any new skills as a result of this task?
Through this campaign, I got the opportunity to fully manage a team of creatives which included writers, creative designers, animators, video editors, and Facebook ad managers on the client’s side. This improved my project management, time management, and organisational skills as I had to keep track of who is working on what, review content materials, give prompt feedback, prepare project tracking documents and reports, ensure the team meets all deadlines, and are present for the client’s workshops and brainstorm sessions.
To a large extent, I got to sharpen my research skill and learned about how vaccine acceptance campaigns for polio, yellow fever, and measles were handled. With this information, I was able to get a good start to execute this campaign.
My moods during the campaign:
At the beginning 🤯
Midway 😰
At the end 😎
