TV commercials persuading people to get the Covid-19 vaccine hit just when people needed to hear the message



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In January, there were more than 512 million ad impressions for spots related to the Covid-19 vaccine, according to analysis done for CNN by iSpot, a company that measures impressions and performance of all TV commercials. The company tracks audiences on more than 18 million smart TVs across the United States, then takes US census data into account to get a national picture of who sees ads.

With the exception of March, the number of advertisements for the Covid-19 vaccine increased steadily to peak at 3.5 billion ad impressions in May. Since then, the number has declined as has, until recently, the number of people getting vaccinated. In July, there were only around 713 million ad impressions for spots related to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Ad impressions naturally decline during the summer months when fewer people are watching TV, but that’s not the only reason you don’t see so much. They are decreasing because, say advertising experts, they no longer work to persuade the unvaccinated.

“I think people are now vaccinated against the Covid message instead of the Covid virus,” said Punam Keller, senior associate dean of innovation and growth at Tuck School of Business in Dartmouth.

Ad impressions are only a metric. For analysis, iSpot also recruits panels of at least 500 U.S. consumers with quotas for different demographics. Respondents answer questions about how much they liked an ad, how they felt and how persuaded they were. These responses are quantified in additional data.

Earlier this year, commercials for the Covid-19 vaccine were aimed at raising awareness and educating people about them, according to John Cassillo, TV analyst[R]EV which works with iSpot. The commercials were shown at televised events such as the NFL playoffs which had large audiences.

FedEx Moving Forward announcement, where images of weddings and roller coasters recede, as a loyal FedEx delivery driver rushes to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine “so that life can move forward” has worked well . He was considered the second most successful with Republican and Libertarian audiences, who generally expressed more cynicism than Democrats about Covid-19 ads.

Another ad that worked well, even among Republicans and Liberals, was from Walmart. who let people know his pharmacy would be ready to administer the Covid-19 vaccines.

Google’s ad that showed internet users search terms like “social distancing,” “lockdown,” and everyone’s favorite “sweatpants” worked well in March.

And perhaps not a big surprise, the Budweiser ad that promised free beer for a vaccination also became popular.

But after a few months, most people knew about the vaccines and the ads started to ease.

“I think once you’ve educated the people who are most willing to get it, then you need to re-evaluate and try something different,” Cassillo said.

Enthusiastic people got vaccinated.

New science leads to another CDC update on masks.  Even for the vaccinated.

Today, there are two large groups of unvaccinated people in the United States, explained Leonard Berry, a distinguished professor of marketing at Texas A&M University and a senior researcher at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. One is the group that says they will never get vaccinated, many for political reasons.

Those who can still be persuaded fall into a few broad categories. These are mostly young people, low-income people, members of different minority groups and people living in rural areas.

“The persuasive people aren’t against it for political reasons. It’s mostly because it’s embarrassing, or they think ‘I’m healthy, I don’t need it, I’m not going to have it.’ Or they just haven’t paid much attention, “says Berry.” Conventional advertising isn’t the most effective way to reach and persuade either of these groups. ”

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Reliability and credibility are also a big concern, and there is what Keller currently calls “low-source credibility” for Covid messages.

“The ability or motivation of the message source to provide accurate and truthful information is in doubt,” Keller said. “So if people don’t believe that the person delivering the message has the ability or the motivation to give them accurate and truthful information, you are going to doubt the message.”

According to iSpot research, there was one group of ads that Republican and Libertarian audiences did not find convincing at all. They didn’t appreciate an Advertising Council ad featuring US Presidents, Republicans and Democrats encouraging people to get vaccinated.

And even when Pfizer pulled the chord on the ability of the vaccinated to finally kiss someone they loved, or see the next grandchild, that audience was not moved and viewed him as the l one of the least persuasive ads they’ve seen during the pandemic.

Keller explains that at one point, Covid-19 ads also stopped working due to what is known in the advertising industry as “grab and freeze”.

“Seizure and freeze happens when someone just grabs the idea that this is a Covid message, and they basically freeze all further processing and don’t pay attention or process the rest of the message.” , Keller explained. “Basically they think, ‘I have a strong belief in Covid. Yes, it’s a Covid message, I’m done. “”

Depressing figure on Republicans and vaccine

ISpot’s research showed that the ads were more compelling and sympathetic to Democrats than they were to Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, and non-voters. Republicans more often found the ads “dishonest or disbelieving,” according to Sammi Scharninghausen, brand analyst at iSpot.

“You know, a little hard to believe, skeptical, with very little inspiring or heartfelt feedback,” Scharninghausen said. “It kind of echoes what we’re seeing with persuasion scores.”

A national Monmouth University poll on Monday showed 31% of Republicans said they would probably never get the shot.

What seems to work better than large-scale TV advertising now are targeted messaging and hyper-local efforts, according to Heidi Arthur, campaign development manager at the Ad Council, the charitable arm of the industry. publicity that brought the world Smokey the Bear and McGruff. the crime dog.

The Ad Council has a long history of promoting good public health behavior. In the 1950s, he used celebrities like Elvis Presley, Dick Van Dyke, and Ella Fitzgerald in network ads to promote the polio vaccine. But the world is no longer divided into three networks and one message must reach people on multiple platforms. Younger people no longer really watch network television.

So, rather than general advertising, the Advertising Board is much more focused on what it calls “ground play”. Building coalitions, targeting programs to particular audiences in communities that have not been reached by messages from voices they trust.

“It’s not just about the ads, they’re critically important, but they really deliver those same research-based messages to events, to toolkits that can really be used by communities in need. of this message, ”Arthur said.

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