Put the face to the vaccine

The vaccines are coming. More precisely, Covid-19 vaccinations are already being administered in large parts of the world at varying speeds, while it will be March before the Australian Federal Government have their needles at the ready.

The exercise is a mammoth communications exercise, which is made harder by the determined levels of suspicion levelled at the idea of vaccinating. Way before Covid-19 became the viral poster child, the World Health Organisation listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the biggest threats to global health. The Covid conspiracy chorus, fed by a ragbag of intransigent celebrities has done nothing to soothe the situation. To that end, a recent survey by the Associated Press found that a quarter of US adults “weren’t sure” if they wanted to be vaccinated against Covid. Granted, the picture in Australia is far less recalcitrant, but the reality is there are people who have misgivings about vaccinating, whether that is borne of fear or ideology, which brings me to my argument.

It’s the people, stupid, or in campaign terms, it you want ‘em to vaccinate, tell ‘em about the people who made it. Scientific and medical breakthroughs have always been about the people, whether it’s Fleming and penicillin; Christiaan Barnard and his hearts, or Crick and Watson and DNA. As an audience, we can relate to these individual stories and so they become memorable. Their efforts talk to attributes which the rest of us crave – tenacity, wisdom, and inventiveness. We go as far as holding them up to our children as emblems of hard work and possibility – “look, what you can achieve if you try hard enough!”.

For communicators, their magic, quite simply, is they have a face. We can subsequently, personalise campaigns and with personalisation, comes greater trust. We can see the whites of their eyes and they look like you and me. Audiences tend to find it harder to distrust individuals, versus the organisations they work for.

Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and BioNTech are superbly effective businesses, who all do important work; in fact, they do very important work – their products can keep us alive - but the ‘body corporate ‘is deemed far less trustworthy than the individual men and women who run them. Case in point, Edelman’s widely reported Trust Barometer found that 50% of respondents in Australia questioned if “capitalism did more harm than good”. It is easier for audience members to feel empowered enough to condemn big (read profitable), faceless organisations; especially with names that would suggest they come from other planets. The fact that the vaccine breakthrough was engineered and managed by these institutions (together with Oxford University) is not contested but framing the story in corporate terms loses sight of those individual exertions and emotions we can all relate to at times of such challenges. And as any discerning communicator knows, if our audience can connect with our campaigns, their levels of engagement will be far more meaningful. Pharmaceuticals work furiously at an image of control and dispassionate efficiency, but in undermining any resistance to the vaccine, it’s a must that they get behind the polished livery and show us the blood, sweat and tears.

The staying together message will be needed more than ever when we get back to normal

“We’re in this together” quickly became the collective mantra in the face of the pandemic. From politicians, national broadcasters, and celebrities, the script remains the same.

This came as no surprise. At times of national-scale hemorrhaging, the messaging will always speak to solidarity and unity, whether it’s virus attacks, or terrorist attacks. It works, on the whole, despite the chorus of togetherness being occasionally undermined by a palatial backdrop enjoyed by said celebs.

The more intriguing question is when do we stop being in this together? The closer we edge to a sense of normality, many businesses will strain every sinew to revert to the individualism of old and return the spotlight onto personal indulgence, but it will be an ill-advised business that throws themselves too soon into such a position.

I strongly believe that the corporate messaging needs to continue to appeal to those consumer obligations, before the treats kick in. Which begs the question, what are these new obligations? We’ve readily obliged and stayed indoors and kept our distance, but now, more than ever, we need to be in this together to fix the country; the national economy has the frailty of a newborn foal.

The importance of consumer spending when it comes to the resuscitation process is not lost on me, but this is not an anti-spend message which I put forward, it is a stakeholder message. How so? Our messaging can help achieve growth in different ways. My argument is that a messaging strategy that taps into these inherent consumer obligations to re-build the nation will have far more reputational kudos for the businesses behind them, than one that points solely to the idea of individual needs.

Let’s make this a little more material – as an airline, hotelier, or cruise line operator – you can pitch the escapism line to your potential customers, or there is something more shared in purpose, which plays into a more collective responsibility and talks of the benefits personal travel and tourism plans have for others. The smart messaging will be mindful of the pandemic’s brutal effects on an industry’s eco-system – the vendors, suppliers, and contractors - and If we’re truly in this together, will make the consumer think about how they spend.

It’s not a new approach; some of the recent bushfire campaigns talked up the need to visit those affected regions, but the scourge of Covid 19 comes after those earlier difficulties.

People are tired and need a break  - they need to dream, but I would argue the smarter move in terms of those corporate narratives would be to hold off on the dream building and focus on making the togetherness message a reality.

That reality, however, can only be achieved if corporate actions speak louder than words. At a time of widespread uncertainty and growing mistrust, businesses will need to walk the walk if this idea of inclusiveness is to land. So, best not to talk about being in it together if creative tax avoidance practices or offshore labor arrangements are a feature of the organizational strategy – the regeneration narrative soon caves in.

We face an unprecedented mutual situation – the smart businesses out there will use it to cement their communal credentials; they will continue to bring people together and in turn, start the national recovery process. There will never be a better chance to highlight the value which togetherness brings, as we’ve all felt the loss when it’s gone, and as a message, it has to be now because it won’t work any time later.

This article first appeared in Mumbrella: https://mumbrella.com.au/

Covid 19: Who should tell us when it's right to go back to normal?

How long? That’s the question we all seem to be asking at the moment. How long will it be until we can get back to normal? The pragmatists are leaning towards the 4-6 months mark; the optimists, sadly, not much less. 

Fundamentally, we don’t know, but what appears to be consensual is that a vaccine is some way off. So, what are we to do as PRs? We are in the middle of a public information program, which reiterates the need for the right collective and individual behaviours, which usually comes in the shape of stopping us from doing the stuff we used to do.

However, people and markets can only take so much in the way of inertia. We can only ‘not do’ for so long, which brings me back to the role played by public relations as this sobering situation continues. A crisis, as we know, tends to drag out – there isn’t a finishing line. It typically goes from the ‘big bang’, to a prolonged process of introspection, lower productivity and distrust. People and markets won’t wait until we’ve got to a point of zero activity with coronavirus; there will be an overwhelming urge to get back to normal when that curve has started to move in the right direction. Governments and businesses will, undoubtedly, be led by science and economics – the first tends to have far more patience than the second in these situations – but who’s to say when the time is right to do normal again? This is when PR should jump at the opportunity to play ‘corporate conscience’. It’s a thankless role, but one we are as suitably qualified as anyone else within the organisation, if not better, to carry out. To be clear, this is not about showing bravado and yelling it’s ‘business as usual’ before we’re ready; no, this is about recognizing that the actions compelled by having a conscience could also mean that we are confident enough to say, ‘we’re still not ready’.

The time spent in enforced exile away from the office is good for us as PRs; it’s at this time that we’ll get the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the ‘public’ of public relations (albeit at a distance). Former US General and CIA Head, David Petraeus once said that decision making during times of uncertainty, needs to be far less top-down, and “pushed outwards and downwards” towards where new information is originating.  This immersion is critical if we’re to get a sense if this information and how people are feeling. It’s only then can we make those right conscience calls.