Identify and explain the health issue on which you will focus (e.g. Covid19 vaccination for vaccine hesitant people or parents to vaccinate their children or the already vaccinated to get their booster shot). Define important terms.

Communication Strategies by Geoffrey

Scenario The scenario for your campaign is that you, as the spokesperson as well as developer for your campaign, will attempt to persuade vaccine hesitant members of your family/friends or group to which you belong to get the COVID19 vaccine, or booster or for parents to vaccinate their children.  Especially with the vaccine hesitant, research shows they are most likely to be persuaded by a member of their own community or someone they respect.

Imagine that you work for a healthcare employer and your supervisor asked your team to each write their own proposal for an individualized campaign to persuade a particular small group of Covid 19 vaccine hesitant people to vaccinate or booster themselves or their children.  The employer requires all proposals to be written in the same format so they can be easily compared.

 

Step 1: Defining the Situation and Potential Benefits

 

  1. Identify and explain the health issue on which you will focus (e.g. Covid19 vaccination for vaccine hesitant people or parents to vaccinate their children or the already vaccinated to get their booster shot). Define important terms.
  2. Address the significance/costs: What are the health consequences?   What are the personal costs to individuals?   What are the societal costs to others?
  3. Address the scope: How prevalent is this health concern? Is the prevalence greater for some groups than others?
  4. Address factors influencing people’s behavior regarding this health issue.

 

Step 2: Analyzing and selecting a Target Audience

You are selecting and describing whom your campaign will target and why, as well as the thoughts and behaviors of this targeted group of people that could be addressed by your campaign:

  1. Based on articles addressing your health issue, think carefully about the people affected by the issue (target population).  Describe the people/groups affected by your health issue.
  2. Choose a target audience that your campaign could significantly impact (i.e., your family/friends, groups you know and belong to, parents to vaccinate their children). Describe this group and why it is particularly important that they be the focus of a campaign on your health issue (i.e., why is it important to change their behavior?)   Your writing needs to explain why you chose this target population.   Why should a campaign be focused on their behavior?
  3. Find out everything you can about your “target audience.”  Why are they particularly vulnerable on your health issues?  What thoughts/behaviors offer information about how to persuade this group?

 

Step 3: Establishing Campaign Goals and Objectives

In this section, you are setting objectives for your campaign (e.g. convince target audience to get the covid19 vaccine) and you are planning the communication efforts that will enable you to reach them (e.g., facetime, zoom, email, letters, PowerPoint etc.).

  1. State the overall goal of your campaign. What do you want to achieve?  What kinds of changes do you want your campaign to make?  Identify specific objectives, and think in terms of short-term outcomes (awareness of the campaign), mid-term outcomes (changes in beliefs, attitudes, perceptions), and long-term outcomes (behavioral changes, health improvements).
  2. Apply the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timeframe) criteria to the objectives you identified.   Work with your objectives until you have the set you want that meets these criteria. Write this section of your paper laying out your objectives and how they meet the SMART criteria.

 

Step 4: Selecting Channels of Communication

In this section you will plan the communication that will enable you to reach your objective(s).   What is your campaign going to DO to get you to those SMART objectives?

  1. Channel Characteristics: Choose a communication method that will best meet your goals for successfully implementing your messageg.(facetime, zoom, email, letters, PowerPoint etc.).
  2. Explain why and how this channel is the best choice for persuading your target audience.
  3. How does this channel affect the impact of the message in terms of involvement and arousal?

 

Step 5: Designing Campaign Messages

This section is the heart of the campaign.  You will choose a theory to guide you in developing the message.

Choosing a Voice and/or Spokesperson: for this project you are the spokesperson for the campaign addressing your target audience and persuading them to get a covid19 vaccine. Write about what makes you a good spokesperson for this particular audience.

 

Theoretical Foundation for message framing. Choose one of the theories covered in chapters 13 and 14 of the duPre textbook to guide you in framing your message. The text book gives a limited explanation of the theories.  In order to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the theory you choose, do a search for more information on the theory.

 

  1. Explain the major theory that undergirds your campaign.
  2. Define all major terms used in the theory.
  3. Explain the major predictions of the theory.
  4. Explain how the theory is useful in you campaign.

 

Designing the Message 

Appeals:  Which appeals will best fit your target your audience and why (e.g. Community Expectations, Narrative Messages, Logical Appeals, Emotional Appeals, Novel and Shocking Messages).  How will you use these appeals in the design of your message? Define the appeals you use.

 

Transcript:  For this section you will write a transcript of the actual message you will deliver in your campaign address to your target audience. Identify the communication channel(s) you are using to deliver this message. Because the reader will not have access to the visuals you may use in your message, describe the visuals and their purpose as they are used throughout the message.  Write your visual descriptions in a manner that would make sense to a visually challenged person using a screen reader.

 

PSA Checklist Answer each of the following questions evaluating the transcript you wrote above.  In this section, write out each of the eleven questions with your answer to each in a list format as below.

  1. Does the PSA clearly state what people should or should not do? If so, what behavior is encourage/discouraged?
  2. Does the PSA explain that people will be adversely affected if they do not adopt the desired behavior If so, how?
  3. Does the PSA establish that adverse effects will be considerable if people do not heed advice? If so, how?
  4. Does the PSA establish that adopting the recommended behavior will be effective in preventing the adverse outcome? If so, how?
  5. Does the PSA establish that the effort and cost of adopting the advocated behavior is worthwhile? If so, how?
  6. Is there a specific to call to action? If so, what is it?
  7. Does the PSA refer to the social implications of adopting/failing to adopt the recommended behavior? If so, how?
  8. Does the PSA establish that positive outcomes are possible? If so, how?
  9. Does the PSA address self-efficacy? If so, how?
  10. Do you believe the PSA is effective? Why? Why not?
  11. How could you rewrite the message to make it more effective?

Step 6: Piloting and Implementing the Campaign

In this section give the specifics of how and when you will deliver the message for your campaign. Refer back to your SMART goals you wrote about in Step 3.

 

Step 7: Evaluating and Maintaining the Campaign

What steps will you take to measure the efficacy of your campaign.  Refer back to your SMART goals you wrote about in Step 3.  Describe how you will assess, measure, survey, etc. to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign.   Write this out in paragraphs.