A social media case study showing a successful campaign to achieve behavioural change in public health. It focusses on boosting the uptake of MMR vaccination for East Sussex County Council and the NHS, delivered by social media agency Qube Media.

1. East Sussex County Council & NHS
Public health behaviour change
social media case study
Boosting the uptake of MMR vaccination

2. CHALLENGE
Use social media to boost the uptake of
the MMR vaccination in children under 5
in East Sussex and support the on-going
campaign to raise awareness of the safety
and importance of the MMR vaccine

3. INSIGHT
Simply trying to tell people to change, or giving
them information and expecting them to act on
it, may not work if you forget to consider the
benefits people derive from certain behaviours.
The Guardian (March 2011)

4. INSIGHT
A variety of factors influence behaviour
Personal factors
• Knowledge and awareness – people don’t
have a good understanding of problem or
MMR, recent boycott
• Attitudes – view on importance of MMR
• Habit – whether or not their other children
had it
• Perceived behavioural control – whether
having MMR will make any difference
• Emotions – fear of jabs, belief in
probability of occurrence
Social factors
• Norms – how does their action fit within
their peer groups/community
Local and wider environment
• Travelling to the GPs
• Attending with multiple children
• Non-English speakers

5. WHAT WE DID
Our strategy for this campaign was to
create a social movement around
‘making a difference to the lives of
children in East Sussex’.
Within this movement we launched
the MMR campaign.

6. WHAT WE DID
We created Share a Smile Sussex. Its aim was to make a
difference to the lives of children in East Sussex.
Share
a Smile
Sussex
We encouraged people, particularly parents, to help
spread the word about public health issues regarding
children, starting with the MMR vaccination.

7. WHAT WE DID
We developed clear messaging, branding and a value
exchange for the MMR campaign. We planned to
influence personal factors such as Awareness and
Knowledge, but also social factors such as Norms.

8. WHAT WE DID
We created a Facebook page and launched
the MMR campaign within it

9. WHAT WE DID
We built an audience through on and offline
advertising. This served to both get the MMR message
across and encourage people to help spread the word.
The poster was displayed across East
Sussex in public places such as Libraries,
Sure Start Centres and GP surgeries.

10. WHAT WE DID
Supporters could help spread the word using our
Facebook app and help local children’s charities with
fun days out for children in need
Users could
choose a local
children’s charity
they would like to
support
They shared the
message with their
Facebook friends
on their newsfeed

11. WHAT WE DID
They could also help spread the word by simply
sharing messages from the Facebook page wall
Many users
preferred to
directly share a
message with
their Facebook
friends

12. WHAT WE DID
We drip-fed messages and stories about MMR
without becoming repetitive

13. WHAT WE DID
We interspersed this with regular content of value to
the audience of parents beyond the health message.
This content fitted as part of the aim to make a
difference to children’s lives.

14. IMPACT
The project is still in progress, so we don’t have
detailed results we can share as yet, but so far...
In the first 4 weeks, the MMR
62,956 message has reached over 60,000
people on Facebook in East Sussex.
(This does not include the reach of
Reach of MMR message
on Facebook in first month the offline advertising/posters etc.)
People are starting to actively join
the campaign and share the MMR
message with their friends.
We will update this section with
more results as soon as we can.

15. Qube and East Sussex County Council
• Qube has partnered with East Sussex County Council on
a number of projects using social media to change
behaviour and engage with the public

16. Qube Media
A leading social media agency with
a focus on behavioural change
Contact us if you would like to
understand the new marketing
landscape and to discuss how we
can help you engage the public
+44 1273 689 672
hello@qubemedia.net
www.qubemedia.net