In 2020, Denver, along with the rest of the world, had to learn to adapt. With the ever-increasing threat of COVID-19, the City & County of Denver wanted to launch a campaign to encourage its residents to do their part in protecting themselves, their families, and their neighbors against the virus, and eventually, to get vaccinated.
With lives at stake and a sense of urgency, the city wanted to get this messaging out quickly. The sooner we could see the COVID-19 contraction rate decline, the better. Certain demographics were more negatively impacted by the pandemic than others, so larger efforts were put toward communities of minority and hard-to-reach communities. Ultimately, the campaign had to acknowledge the difficulty of the pandemic, while maintaining that the responsibility the community has to keep everyone safe, is worth it.
Who doesn’t love going to a live concert? Or eating out with friends? Holidays with family are important, aren’t they? Empowering the community to see that those concerts and get-togethers were worth remaining vigilant through the discomfort of COVID safety precautions was key. When the project began, it was a fight to spread awareness about the safety measures that would protect us from the virus. The project evolved as new information and opportunities for action arose. Midway through the campaign, our focus shifted to vaccines, then boosters, and shifted again when children became eligible for vaccine protection.
The campaign concept, at its start, was inspired by the graphic curves and data visualization. Our creative assets utilized clean design with typographic support to encourage ‘you’ to do your part in flattening the curve. With the help of our long standing partnership with a Spanish language and community expert, we utilized transcreation to maintain clear messaging geared toward the entirety of the Denver community. As the vaccine became available and the pandemic wore on, we shifted to a more photo- and video-based approach to bring in an authentic human element while combating ad fatigue. The overall campaign, throughout each of its phases, identified motivating factors, then asked residents to step up, because it’s worth it.
Adaptable—a quality that was necessary to ensure the success of this campaign. As each new wave of the pandemic hit, we adapted, and after about a year and a half, the City & County of Denver’s ‘Worth It’ campaign helped influence Denver residents to stay healthy and safe and to get vaccinated.
Because of our dedication to minority groups and hard-to-reach communities, we were able to connect through transcreated messaging and leverage community members in grassroots efforts, like handing out flyers at primarily non-English worksites. We also saw greater engagement via Instagram Stories and TikTok ads within Spanish-speaking communities, as well as among the younger generations. When kids started to become eligible for the vaccine, we targeted ads towards mothers of young children, and there was a large jump overall in vaccine administration.
The goal of this campaign was to inspire the community to do the right thing, to keep Denver safe, and eventually, to get everyone vaccinated. The numbers support the positive outcome of this campaign, but so does the continued safety of Denverites and the continued dedication that the City & County of Denver has had promoting vaccine distribution among its residents.
