CICT Campaign
Before vaccines were widely available, we needed to continue equipping communities to manage and prevent the spread of COVID-19. In the beginning, contact tracing was a critical tool in our collective approach to ending the pandemic. MHI responded by working with IDEO.org, a nonprofit design studio, to build contact tracing campaigns in partnership with a community of farmworkers in Florida and a community of Congolese refugees and migrants in Texas.
Working with community leaders
MHI and IDEO.org worked directly with community leaders to design the campaigns, which allowed a more rapid response and fewer iterations. Bringing the community into the process also creates buy-in and reduces isolation.
Community leaders lent their expertise around translation strategy; messaging that resonates; photography, layout, colors and other design elements; strategies around medical language and imagery; using trusted messengers in any campaign delivery.
“I think the process of involving the community was really important. People in the community want to be able to talk to each other about these issues.”
–Community Leader
Messaging
The goal of the campaign was to co-create messaging that built awareness and created willingness to participate in contact tracing. Given that contact tracing efforts were limited in some locations given the nature of the pandemic, our community leaders suggested we also create messaging on safety and protection in the absence of contact tracing.
health and safety
Community safety and increasing protection
This set of materials promoted workarounds for community members to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the absence of resources or infrastructure. This was intended for communities without robust contact tracing measures.
Awareness
Awareness of
COVID-19 contract tracing
This set of materials built an understanding of what contact tracing was and was not, and what role it had in preventing the spread of COVID-19. This was intended for people within communities who were unaware of what contact tracing entailed.
Willingness
Willingness to participate in
contact tracing
This set of materials instilled trust and confidence that drove individuals to opt in to participate in contact tracing. This was intended for people who understood what contact tracing was but were skeptical.
A custom kit
We knew that customized health communications rooted in the needs of affected communities would be more effective than mass campaigns. We worked with IDEO.org to build a guidebook to help individual leaders, community-based organizations, and local health departments get the right messages out quickly.
By leveraging the expertise and extensive knowledge of community leaders, the kit was designed to support organizations in creating a customized contact tracing messaging campaign that was rooted in their community’s values, motivations, and realities.
“The Visual Kit was my favorite part, it helped me understand what it was all building towards. I felt like I could easily go in and make the edits.”
-Public Health Professional
What we learned
Simple, clear, direct language is key. Although lightheartedness and humor are part of the fabric of some of the communities, it’s not a real motivator.
Positivity is more motivating than instilling fear and worry. Love and collective wellbeing are two messages that resonate.
Translations should embrace colloquial idioms, proverbs, and dialects. Translating a sentence literally may make sense, but it isn’t as effective.
There’s a fine balance between scientific and humanistic. We need to lean into the human side of it all.
Seeing real people is important. The communities we worked with preferred photos over illustrations.
Following COVID-19 safety guidelines is crucial. Photography should show people wearing masks properly and practicing social distancing.
Resonant photography will look like the community. This includes the types of clothes people wear, the situations they’re in, and their perceived status in society.
People want to see their community reflected in the campaign. However, there’s a thin line between representing the community and implicating the community.