Getting St. Louis County Vaccinated
A multi-channel campaign to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake in a region with high vaccine hesitation
St. Louis County Department of Public Health
The Challenge
St. Louis County’s residents were hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic given the low rate of vaccination. Trying to persuade the reluctant to get vaccinated was the greatest public health imperative of 2021. Yet a confluence of social, political and cultural factors made the creation of a single, unified call for vaccination a challenge. To further complicate matters, the area has been a hotbed for racial tension and racial polarization, with unrest in Ferguson bringing the County national attention in 2014, and setting up a tense relationship with local government. Fenton delivered a surround-sound communications strategy focused on amplifying the reach of the County Health Department and its vaccination efforts to the County’s most vulnerable communities.
Our Approach
Fenton worked quickly to develop an entirely new campaign to support the vaccination uptake effort. Through an iterative branding, naming and messaging development process, Fenton created the ReviveSTL name, logo and brand guidelines for the County to use. Implementation immediately followed the creation of the campaign brand including research-informed messaging, robust earned media and digital (social & email) strategies, development of a new website that streamlined the vaccination process, a digital toolkit (translated into 6 languages) created to encourage engagement with community based groups for richer implementation, and a $900K multi-channel paid advertising campaign that spanned TV, radio, social media, and billboards.
Fenton developed all of the creative assets featuring and focused on local community members. To source relevant and relatable subjects for the campaign, Fenton’s video team joined the St. Louis County community on the ground, filming and producing dozens of videos of County residents and leaders urging the community to get vaccinated.
Success
ReviveSTL has been successful in reaching residents in every corner of the County and has elevated dozens of everyday residents, businesses, and community and faith leaders in the process.
The campaign has seen:
• A 22% increase in the county’ vaccination rate from the campaign’s launch in May ’21 to Nov ’21
• St. Louis County is the highest vaccinated county in Missouri – 68.9% of St. Louis Countians have at least initiated vaccination, and 60.6% have completed vaccination.
• Advertising featuring local voices viewed more than 30M times by County residents
• More than 88,000 visitors to ReviveSTL.com with nearly 28K clicks to find a vaccine taking place
• More than 25 stories in the press; potentially viewed more than 9 million times
• Dozens of high-quality videos featuring County residents
The vaccination rate increased from 35% to 57% (as of 12/1/21) since our efforts launched, and Black communities with low medical resources have experienced a 5-10% lift in vaccination. Fenton’s efforts also drew attention to a local vaccine advocate from the White House and the CDC, as well as national attention to the Black beauty and barber shop #SleevesUpSTL initiative. The implementation of the full campaign exceeded standard benchmarks and continues to see strong engagement.
