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New Jersey Department of Health

Activating 600+ Local Social Leaders for NJ to Increase COVID-19 Safety & Vaccinations over 18+ Months

Council SolutionCampaign

THE CHALLENGE

At different stages of the pandemic, New Jersey (as the most densely populated State in the U.S.) sought to aggressively fight misinformation and hesitancy - hesitancy to wear a mask, to download the contact tracing app, and then, ultimately, vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy was specifically prevalent within Black and Hispanic communities, as well as with Gen Z, for different reasons. NJ needed a program agile enough to evolve throughout the pandemic to combat myths, spread new information from health experts, and speak to different populations through trusted voices that resonated with different residents.

Our approach

  • #MaskUpNJ
  • #LetsGetNJVaccinated
  • #ImaBigShot

  • Making Mask Wearing Trendy and Raising Awareness for the Contact Tracing App

    Before mask wearing was the norm (phone, keys, wallet, mask, ✔…), many of us needed encouragement and reminders to wear masks. XOMAD used local trendsetters to show off their masks as their new favorite accessory and to share who they masked up for, connecting with audiences through emotional goals to protect loved ones. The campaign also raised awareness for the COVID Alert NJ app, encouraging residents to download it for updates and potential exposures--driving hundreds of thousands of downloads.

  • Increasing Vaccinations by spreading facts through local, trusted social media leaders with NJHA

    To penetrate hard-to-reach Black and Hispanic communities, XOMAD activated local trusted social media creators to not only spread factual information on the vaccine (to help fight the myths), but to also explain their personal reasons for getting vaccinated. Over 77% of this phase of the campaign were minority creators who had strong followings within local communities.

  • Using personal stories on why to get vaccainted to encourage younger audiences to vaccinate

    In order to help increase vaccination rates for Gen Z, XOMAD activated several hundred Gen Z creators on TikTok and Instagram, reaching Gen Z where they spend their time. Creators in this category spoke about their reasons to get vaccinated - from traveling again, to going to games and music concerts, to keeping their at-risk grandparents safe. The personal messages provided reasons for younger generations to get vaccinated, when many felt they would be ok if they got COVID-19.

  • Partner with:

During the first phase, trusted creator content directly correlated with increased COVID alert NJ app mobile downloads. And, during the vaccination phase, the integrated techniques of using trusted social media messengers, door-to-door campaigns, local pop-up clinics, and other state initiatives drove State vaccination rates to over 63% (all ages). Specifically, the Hispanic communities had an increase in vaccination of 21% within 2 months. The different phases of this program ran for 18+ months.

21%

increase in vaccinations among Hispanic New Jerseyans within 2 months

110K+

contact tracing app downloads within 10 days of creators' ramping up their postings

681+

trusted community messengers activated

other case studies