How do you help a county department grow awareness, support, and participation in COVID-19 health recommendations and prevention measures, while creating collective buy-in from the local community already experiencing COVID fatigue?

LUM Studio was hired by the Teton County Health Department (TCHD) in October 2020 with the purpose to develop an educational, yet persuasive, campaign that would assist the TCHD in communicating the importance of COVID-19 prevention measures. With a primary focus on education, it was critical to showcase accurate and factual information regarding health orders and mitigation measures (washing hands, maintaining social distance, wearing a mask, and staying home when sick). The campaign was also designed to establish TCHD as the go-to source for accurate information and status updates as related to COVID-19 in Teton County. While designed to deliver safety, health, and prevention information to Teton County residents the campaign also needed to project a light-hearted, positive tone in effort to break through the COVID fatigue so many in Teton County were facing.

To address TCHD’s goals, LUM first developed a campaign concept, centered around positivity and local inclusion. Once a name and tagline were established, LUM develop key messages around prevention measures, including statistics and recommended precaution benefits, that would positively persuade the community to take TCHD and CDC recommendations seriously.  Messages were shared throughout social media, traditional media, and print/digital materials. LUM concepted and designed campaign visuals to appeal to local demographics, focusing primarily on a younger audience. We designed custom face masks, stickers, print posters, digital ads and social media graphics as well as designed and built a campaign landing page to serve as a digital hub for the campaign and supporting materials. The landing page also served to connect the community to an abundance of resources already offered in the Teton County area through various health and human services organizations. In addition, the landing page provided a direct marketing opportunity through e-newsletter. LUM planned, designed, and provided the content for a weekly e-newsletter that the community could sign up to receive.

To further encourage collective buy-in LUM conducted influencer outreach with key industry leaders in Teton County who were willing to assist us our effort to increase COVID-19 prevention participation. Influencer testimonials were captured in multiple video formats and shared throughout social media, via YouTube and the landing page. LUM concepted, coordinated, and managed video production, delivery and placement. We also planned, executed, and managed a county-wide media buy consisting of digital, print, radio, and social advertisements.

As our one-time project was funded through a 2020 CARES ACT grant, we were challenged with unique budget parameters and a tight deadline. From the launch of the campaign on December 1 to December 31st, reach grew by 79% on Instagram and 54% on Facebook. Engagement on Instagram grew 57% and there was a 5% increase in new followers. The Facebook page saw a 45% page view growth. The post at the start of the campaign was shared 129 times and the posts shared were met with largely positive reactions.

LUM was subsequently hired to support the COVID-19 Campaign beyond the end of 2020 through ongoing, monthly services to ensure high visibility and meaningful impact into 2021, extending the results of our efforts.