Scottish Government

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY: FLU 2006/07 POST-CAMPAIGN EVALUATION

Campaign overview

• The Scottish Executive's Health Protection Team annually commissions a marketing communications campaign to promote the uptake of the flu vaccination to the target groups of the elderly (those aged 65 and over) and the 'at risk'. The 'at risk' groups are reviewed each year and include those with medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart, liver, renal, immuno-suppressant and other diseases. Care workers and poultry workers in Scotland are also included in 'at risk'groups.
• The flu vaccination is promoted because flu and winter related viruses can cause up to 1,200 deaths each year in Scotland.
• The flu campaign aims to promote the importance of getting vaccinated and to increase the numbers of people coming forward for vaccination. The public health targets are 70% amongst those aged 65 and over and 60% amongst those 'at risk'. The campaign works alongside local immunisation vaccination and communication programmes undertaken by each of the Health Boards.
• Historically, there has been an independent campaign evaluation among both the 'at risk' and over 65s audiences because they have been communicated to in the same campaign. However, some 2006 research with the 'at risk' audience suggested that a new campaign should be created to specifically focus on this audience by highlighting the consequences of not coming forward for vaccination. Therefore, the 2007 evaluation focuses on the 'at risk' campaign.
• The post-campaign evaluation of the new 'at risk' campaign was conducted by TNS System Three over the period 15th to 28th December 2006. This involved in-street interviewing of a representative sample of the 'at risk' group in Scotland and addressed the following research objectives:
  
  1. Assess campaign awareness among the 'at risk' target audience (spontaneous and prompted with the use of stimuli) in comparison to the previous wave of research.
  
  2. Measure the effectiveness of the campaign in terms of knowledge and understanding of key campaign messages.
  
  3. Gather information on which media types which work best for the 'at risk' target audience to inform future campaign development in relation to target age groups.

Highlights

• Overall the campaign has been effective in its aim to communicate that those 'at risk' should get their free flu jab and that "At 100mph, flu can hit you hard".
• When asked about their awareness of advertising/publicity on the subject of flu, the 'at risk' group exhibited high levels of spontaneous campaign awareness (65%). Awareness amongst those aged 35-54 and 55-64 was slightly higher than that of the youngest age group (16-34).
• After prompting with campaign materials, over two thirds (68%) claimed to be aware of at least one of the adverts (total reach) with the radio advert and particularly the outdoor poster advert recording high levels of recognition.
• The campaign messages about prompting those 'at risk' to get the flu jab were communicated to the respondents through all media types used in the campaign. The adverts also communicated key campaign messages about the seriousness of flu and the importance of the flu jab for 'at risk' groups.
• In conjunction with high levels of campaign awareness, eight in ten of those 'at risk' were aware of their potential eligibility for a free flu vaccination. This is a positive finding, given that this is a campaign aim and that the previous wave of research concluded that there needs to be a focus on making those 'at risk' aware of their eligibility. The level of awareness of eligibility was highest amongst the oldest age group (55-64 at 96%) and lowest amongst the youngest age group (16-34 at 65%).
• Around two thirds (67%) of respondents felt they were not at all likely to visit the Scottish Executive flu website, and an additional 17% felt they were not very likely to visit the site.

Implications

• For future campaign activity, the research suggests we are effectively reaching an older audience within the 'at risk' target group through our media choices. We will work on optimising the media mix for the younger 'at risk' audience.
• Evidence also suggests that we should explore production of a new TV advertising campaign given that research shows that the 'at risk' group are still viewing TV for general flu messages.