Reaching Diverse Audiences

diverse audiences

• Diversity represents categories of people based on differences that cannot be altered, such as age, race, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, and physical abilities/qualities; and differences that can be altered, such as class, language, income, marital status, religion, geography, and military experience (Sha and Ford, 2007, p. 386)

Not one size fits all

• Belonging to a category does not mean a generic message covers all members
• Tactics and messages may need to be varied within any given campaign to target specific demographics

Ending HIV #HelpEndHIV

• Public relations firm: Frost*Collective
• Client: ACON (Aids Council Of NSW) - who are the leading health promotion organisation in New South Wales, specialising in HIV and LGBTI health

The need for this campaign was identified as research showed:

For the first time in 10 years, 2012 saw a 24% rise in NSW HIV infections.

This campaign is the 1st large scale gay community engagement and mobilisation platform to embody the NSW HIV Strategy 2012-2015: A New Era, launched by NSW Health on December 1, 2012.

The campaign design was inspired by Katherine Hamnett’s ‘CHOOSE LIFE’ t-shirts worn by 80s icons Wham. Frost* believed this strategy would capture the essence of revolutionary rallies by using power of words to encourage a collective spirit and inspire people to take action.

Ending HIV Case Study

OBJECTIVE - To End HIV By 2020

• TARGET AUDIENCE - 78% of new infections were found in gay men

STRATEGIES

• DESIGN CHALLENGES
• To create a bold campaign to change people’s attitudes and behaviour
• To create a health campaign that was fun and engaging whilst tackling a negative subject like HIV

New research found that HIV can be virtually eliminated through individually solving a three step equation:Test More – treat early – stay safe = Ending HIV

Key message

• The message was strong yet simple.
• The message cannot get lost in translation and clearly states the purpose of the campaign

QUESTION...
“The most persuasive messages are direct, simply expressed and contain only one primary idea” (Wilcox et al, 2015).
Do you all agree this was achieved with
“Test More – treat early – stay safe = Ending HIV”?

TACTICS

• The campaign was highly visible across Sydney by placing the Ending HIV message in targeted spaces such as bus shelters, key gay venues and digital ads

Medical vans were present at Mardi Gras and other locations across Sydney that offered HIV testing. This tactic was employed to promote advances in HIV testing

There are on-going solutions such as the ‘I’m on!’ initiative.
This was designed to promote condom use amongst gay man in order to drive the other integral part of the key message, which is to stay safe.

ACON wanted to deliver a positive but serious message with a touch of humour and humanity, to create interest, intrigue and talkability.

EVALUATION

• A two minute video to help promote the Test More message featuring community identities such as Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham generated over 25,000 views on YouTube and 190,000 views via media outlets
• The website received 68,000 visits and 139,000 page views, with an average of 2 minutes spent on the site per visit.

EVALUATION... continued

• Over 500 pieces of content delivered via social media daily across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Ending HIV Facebook page reached 12,000 Facebook fans (a 65% increase in 12 months)

EVALUATION... CONTINUED

• Among focus groups the campaign had high rates of recall (up to 88%) and persuasiveness, with externally-run evaluation showing they drove very significant attitudinal shifts among gay men in relation to ending HIV

Media coverage was extensive and on-message. More than 30 mainstream media channels covered the story with an estimated audience greater than 4 million.
-Today show cross
-ABC TV news
-Front page Mx
-Extensive radio coverage

All major gay media provided extensive on-message coverage:
-Star Observer
-Sx
-Inside-Out TV
-Gay News Network

THANK YOU!