Helping EFSA raise awareness of African Swine Fever

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is an agency of the European Union that provides independent scientific advice and communication on risks associated with the food chain. With African Swine Fever impacting all Member States, EFSA wanted to launch a communication campaign to inform veterinarians, hunters, and farmers about the disease and how to prevent it. ICF Next helped EFSA to develop the campaign's strategy and to then implement and manage four editions of the campaign, between 2020 and 2023.

African Swine Fever is a viral disease that affects both domestic pigs and wild boar. While harmless to humans, it causes severe economic disruption on a global scale. EFSA needed to raise awareness in the EU and neighboring countries about how to detect, prevent, and report this disease. We were first tasked with identifying the most relevant target audiences, followed by developing tailored communication messages to reach them effectively. These messages needed to be adaptable for dissemination across different platforms and a diverse set of target audiences. The campaign had to be implemented in various countries—each with distinct cultures, languages, and experiences of the disease. Another challenge was avoiding “campaign fatigue” with fresh messages and visuals throughout its four-year duration.

We knew that a clear strategy and an innovative approach were the keys to this campaign, especially when it came to identifying the target audiences and developing the best ways to reach them. To achieve this, we worked hand-in-hand with EFSA throughout the process of setting the strategy—bringing together EFSA's scientific knowledge and ICF Next’s communication expertise. 

The campaign targeted 18 countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Czechia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, and Romania.

Given the specific audiences (veterinarians, hunters, and farmers), we also had to innovate to ensure that the targeted platforms were used by those audiences. To address this, we delivered a 360° campaign, including a website, social media campaigns, stakeholder activations, newspaper publications, TV advertising, and an out-of-home campaign. In addition, we created a specific messaging and visual identity for the campaign.

Over the four-year duration, we regularly refined the strategy to ensure that it remained effective in reaching the target audience and preventing campaign fatigue. To this end, we revised the visual identity and the messaging after two years.

Our team also adapted the strategy to each of the target countries. This was to ensure that the campaign was relevant to the needs of each country, and to align with the specific situation of the disease there. We also conducted surveys and evaluations at the end of each edition of the campaign to collect relevant data, which we then used to develop the concept for the next edition.