CITY OF MELBOURNE - VACCINE HERO CAMPAIGN

Whilst undertaking a contract to develop a new social media strategy for the City of Melbourne, I was tasked with developing a social first campaign to promote Covid-19 vaccinations in the local community.

As vaccinations had become a highly politicised issue at this stage in the pandemic and this messaging would be coming from the largest city council in Victoria, there were numerous hoops to jump through in order to have the campaign greenlit by the Lord Mayor’s office.

I settled on a simple UGC campaign which celebrated those getting the jab as Vaccination Heroes and giving away a $1000 shopping voucher to various Melbourne stores every day for a 6 week period. People were asked to post a photograph or video of themselves about to get vaccinated or having already been vaccinated on Instagram and then tell us what they were looking forward to doing in Melbourne when the city reopens.

The social media campaign created a lot of buzz, with various mainstream media outlets reporting on it. I filmed with the Lord Mayor Sally Capp weekly as we made regular updates about the campaign and we also displayed a branded tracker on Town Hall displaying Melbourne’s vaccination numbers as they went up. Over the course of the campaign over 18,000 entries were received and 42 winners announced. There was a huge amount of effort put into moderating anti-vaccination rhetoric on all of the social media posts promoting the campaign also.