We Stand United. Apart. Our COVID Response Campaign

The year 2020 brought with it a lot of challenges that we’d never seen before.

In the early months, we were all shaken by the rise of a global pandemic. As it was an unprecedented situation, acting quickly was an essential part of stopping its rampant spread across the community.

However, the virus was not the only threat.

The misinformation, panic and confusion was just as infectious and in some ways, just as dangerous as COVID-19 itself.

We needed to address this.

As the weeks of early 2020 continued to roll on, increasing levels of fear and anxiety quickly engulfed the world. Understandably, everyone (including my team) was worried for their personal health as well as that of their loved ones, and people were desperately scrambling for information.

Fortunately, we were quick to act.

Being a professional communications team, our focus was and is always on understanding public relations and supporting people by providing relevant information.

To do this, we had to determine likely reactions and address them accordingly.

We recognised that the Coronavirus pandemic would result in four distinct phases – each with different effects on people from all walks of life.

1.     First was the Denial Phase. At this point, people would try to downplay the effects of the pandemic. This happened during the times when people weren’t feeling the effects of it firsthand – as it was not that close to them, they felt as though they could still carry on with their lives normally.

2.     Once it hit our shores, suddenly, the virus was no longer a distant problem. People would get nervous and pressure for the government to act would mount. This was the Anxiety Phase.

3.     As a response to the spread of the virus, restrictions would come into place. People would then try to adapt as the new constraints affected their lives during what we labelled the Adjustment Phase.

4.     Eventually, people would start to think about how to live life moving forward. This would cause everyone to accept the changes and make them part of our daily lives – this is the Re-Evaluation Phase.

Once these phases were mapped out, we determined an associated plan of action to support, inform and communicate with South Australians throughout each.

The goal was to provide peace of mind, comfort, certainty and, ultimately, safety.

Our Campaign Strategy

The COVID campaign was built on two key pillars:

1.     Keeping South Australia Safe and Strong

2.     Ensuring that We Stand United. Apart.

As this was a public health concern where lives were at risk and mass panic was a serious threat, speed was of the essence in delivering every piece of crucial information.

People had to know things such as how close the virus was to them and what they could do to keep themselves safe. However, it wasn’t just what we said that was important; when we said it also became a crucial aspect. As a result, we had to ensure that all the information we provided to the public was relevant, accurate, fast and up to date.

This was the only way to earn their trust and engage interest away from distractions and misinformation.

So, beginning immediately in April 2020, we launched a statewide public information campaign to encourage South Australians to visit the SA.GOV.AU website for a trustworthy and reliable source of COVID-19 information.

Our main goal was to provide accurate and most importantly, timely updates, enabling South Australians to monitor the COVID-19 statistics, as well as obtain reliable information about contact tracing, safety recommendations, testing facilities, tips, advice, vaccination programs and more.

On top of this, we had to guarantee that all of our information was accessible – so we made it available on every platform possible. For example, we ran ads across television (linear and BVOD), metropolitan and culturally/linguistically diverse radio stations, local press such as Sunday Mail and The Advertiser and digital shopping centre panels all over the state.

We also ran native display advertising across Facebook, Amazon, Spotify, Nine Digital, Verizon Media (among others), and implemented an ‘always-on’ search through Google during the full campaign period.

By the end of 2020, we didn’t just go through the pandemic united together as one state - we also rose above the challenges and bounced back by keeping South Australia safe, strong and well-informed.

And we have achieved great results, too.

In the market research surveys we have conducted, there was a notable increase in the confidence and trust levels of South Australians on the government’s response to the COVID-19 situation.

The SA.GOV.AU website traffic was also monitored by the DPC ICT and the Digital Government team since the COVID-19 portal went live in April. In a span of two months, we recorded over 1.27 million unique users – the equivalent of 99% of South Australia’s adult population.

The quantitative data collected demonstrated that the campaign’s objectives were accomplished and exceeded, the return on tax-payer investment was achieved and we learned a great deal from the whole experience.

We are proud to say that the social and economic impact of the pandemic on South Australia was significantly less than expected.

This being said, I do sincerely acknowledge the terrible impact that COVID-19 had and still has on many people, businesses and industries within our communities. While our program was successful in making a positive difference, the pandemic has caused a lot of hardship and difficulty, and tragically resulted in four deaths.

Moving Forward

While this campaign was a success, recent events around the country have shown us that the pandemic is far from over.

This is why we’re committed to conducting innovative and responsive communication programs that benefit the lives of South Australians.

As we recover from the challenges that the past year has brought us, we strive to effectively communicate prudently and with transparency - that is what South Australians deserve.