Councillors and committees

Agenda item

COVID-19 COMMUNICATIONS PLAN UPDATE

A communications and engagement strategy has been developed to support the Surrey Local Outbreak Management Plan. The Communications Plan has evolved as more has been learnt about our public health response to the virus and this report provides the latest update on communications activity.

 

 

Minutes:

Witnesses:

Abi Pope - Senior Communications Manager - COVID-19 Communications Lead, Surrey County Council

Ruth Hutchinson - Director of Public Health, Surrey County Council

 

Key points raised in the discussion:

1.    The Senior Communications Manager - COVID-19 Communications Lead (SCC) noted:

·         that she would be providing a deeper dive into youth engagement in Surrey which was more important than ever due to the high rates in school-age children.

·         that back in 2020 early on in the pandemic there were high rates of Covid-19 in young people but there were no existing channels within the Council to reach young people, who were not following local government channels on any platform so the Council needed to find a way to reach them.

·         the Council therefore held focus groups with young people from Surrey and undertook in-depth insight work, findings included 73% of those young people surveyed had broken Covid guidelines and the messaging was not reaching their digital spaces and they felt scapegoated.

·         however, peer-to-peer conversations and relatable stories were helpful and so the Council partnered with Livity a youth specialist agency to create the Soon.Surrey Instagram channel with posts from influencers each month highlighting the Council’s strategic priorities around Covid-19 in a relatable and creative way.

·         since April 2021 Soon.Surrey had reached 398,000 Instagram users and had 633 followers.

·         the number one performing post on Soon.Surrey around mental health and videos across Soon.Surrey had 3 million views.

·         Soon.Surrey reels were effective with one receiving 4,252 views.

·         the Soon.Surrey channel also looks beyond Covid-19 to content on mental health and resilience, Black History Month, White Ribbon Day and the Surrey Countryside Code.

·         in addition to peer-to-peer organic content, Soon.Surrey was used as a paid platform, commissioning content such as Fiaa’s vaccination story, and content for 12 to 15 year olds on getting the Covid-19 vaccine; in total paid Instagram posts had been see over 2 million times.

·         another new channel used by the Council was Snapchat which like Instagram and Facebook could be targeted by age and geography - 64% of 16-24 year olds used Snapchat.

·         Snapchat was used as a paid advertising channel and the advertisements created were based on up to date data provided by the Public Health team (SCC).

·         an area addressed on Snapchat was festival season providing key messaging in line with public health guidance, another area was on promoting vaccination uptake in areas where young people may not be getting the vaccination as much as others, another area included Covid-19 testing for young men ‘you wouldn't forget your kit’ and another area was on fear of missing out ‘FOMO’.

·         in total the Council’s Snapchat advertisements received over 8 million views over 29,000 swipe ups and 273,000 video views; the top performing advertisement was on FOMO receiving over 2 million views followed by the advertisement on festival season.

·         another new channel used by the Council was radio advertisements on digital devices, 50% of UK homes had smart speakers and 63% of homes have a DAB device; the Council used In Stream which could be targeted by age and geography and the radio advertisements were heard 294,000 times reaching 37,000 people and the Kiss stations were the most effective in Surrey.

·         TikTok as a channel was a challenge as it could not be geo-targeted at a local level, although that was changing in London and Manchester.

·         there was a large amount of mis- and dis- information on vaccinations on TikTok and the 12 to 15 year old cohort relied heavily on the platform for information.

·         to combat the above issues, the Council therefore teamed up and pooled money with ten other councils through the Council Advertising Network (CAN) to saturate TikTok with vaccination content to ‘socially norm’ vaccinations; the vaccine advertisements were seen over 11 million times and reached over 3 million people, and had 900,000 interactions.

·         the Council also worked with CAN on a microsite called EverythingCovid.info, information was co-created by young people, included influencer content, FAQs and links to book vaccinations and tests, as well as an advertisement by a young doctor on common myths - in the first few weeks the site was launched it had been seen over 1 million times and within the first few days the site led to 290 vaccines being booked. 

·         two out of five users browse the microsite extensively, engagement was high and the microsite was supported through a programmatic advertising campaign through CAN. 

·         whilst the microsite was aimed at 12 to 15 year olds, work was done with parents too, the microsite used influencer content that was geo-targeted to Surrey on social media channels and on apps and websites.

·         that all the channels and tactics used to reach young people were based on data on the consumption of media in that age group, the Communications team (SCC) confident that the Council had reached a large number of young people in Surrey.

2.    The Chairman praised the presentation, welcoming the new channels and tangible benefits and noted that paid posts were a useful tool to continue to use.

3.    The Director of Public Health (SCC) noted that communications - based on data and intelligence - had been essential throughout the pandemic. The dynamic and rapid approach taken by the Communications team (SCC) to respond to new situations arising and changes in rates was vital.

·         The Director of Public Health (SCC) added that the lessons learned, and tools used would be transferable in other public health messaging to young people around sexual health and physical activity.

 

 

RESOLVED:

That the Board noted the activity outlined in the report.

Actions/further information to be provided:

None.

 

Supporting documents: