Influencers across Europe champion public health online
By engaging influencers for campaigns across Europe, we helped the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to raise awareness and encourage behavioral change around key public health issues.
In response to escalating public health crises, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, ICF Next worked with the ECDC to launch five awareness campaigns. These championed the critical role of vaccines, awareness around infectious diseases, tackling antibiotic resistance, and challenging the stigma around HIV/AIDS—all while fostering community engagement and promoting public health online.
Challenge
The campaigns needed to tackle some of the most urgent public health issues faced by Europe today: infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and vaccination hesitancy. Amid widespread misinformation and stigma around HIV/AIDS, the campaigns needed to mitigate disease transmission, highlight the importance of immunisation, and encourage informed health decisions. The goal was to empower individuals and communities to take proactive steps towards better health outcomes and disease prevention.
Solution
Through the influencer campaigns, we worked with ECDC to extend its reach beyond traditional channels. These campaigns targeted communities facing vaccine hesitancy, as well as focusing on flu awareness, antibiotic use for European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD), immunisation during European Immunisation Week (EIW), and awareness of STIs and HIV/AIDS.
To reach Europe’s diverse audiences, our team engaged a diverse group of influencers across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch. These included healthcare professionals, lifestyle influencers, sexologists, streamers, educators, popularisers, and the “Mumfluencers” community. This approach helped the ECDC to effectively target and connect different demographics with information they could trust.
By engaging a broad audience—including individuals affected by HIV stigma, parents, and those less informed about the importance of vaccination and responsible antibiotic use—the campaigns were able to promote informed health choices across multiple communities and channels.
Results
Content creators from across 26 European countries collaborated to create dynamic and engaging content tailored to our campaign goals. These influencers were pivotal in advocating, educating, and raising awareness about the specific public health issues in an engaging and innovative way.
The campaigns featured a vibrant mix of content formats. These ranged from eye-catching, informative posts and live streams on Twitch, to more detailed educational videos and compelling personal stories from those close to the issues. This creative approach captivated audiences across social media, amplifying ECDC’s message and the overall impact of the initiative.
The campaigns exceeded expectations, with an impressive 139,360 engagements and 988,730 views. The campaigns received an estimated 6.45M impressions and 3.82M plays across hundreds of pieces of content: 36 posts, 255 stories, 66 reels, 21 TikTok videos, two YouTube shorts, and a Twitch insert. These outstanding metrics, as measured through Kolsquare, highlight the significant impact and wide-reaching influence of the initiative.
The qualitative feedback from audiences involved was also overwhelmingly positive, with many followers expressing their appreciation for content on the crucial health topics we face every day. This shows the importance of online discussions and highlights the role of influencers in broader health education.