Health agencies around the world are trying to get out the message about the best ways to help win the pandemic war.
Revolve, a branding and marketing firm based in Bedford, N.S., volunteered its communications services.
In late March, Revolve debuted a campaign stressing the importance of staying home to help overcome the COVID-19 virus: “Step Up. Not Out.” It’s leveraging social media while also being supported by a range of online and traditional media companies locally and nationally, meaning people would almost have to go out of their way not to see the campaign on their phones, in newspapers and on billboards and transit shelters.
“There’s a psychological impact that this has had that’s quite interesting,” Revolve CEO Phil Otto said during a phone interview.
“My colleagues were so enthused and so quick to jump on this because everybody wants to feel that they’re doing something to help,” said Otto.
“In this case, we could. We just took our creative abilities and strategic abilities and put them to work.
“There’s been a real feel-good impact that this has brought, where people feel that they’ve got purpose.”
The brainstorming began before a state of emergency had been declared in the province and the premier was telling people to stay the blazes home.
Dr. Lisa Barrett, a physician and clinical scientist of infectious diseases at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre and Dalhousie University in Halifax, is a friend of Otto. She saw a need for a short, snappy message to encourage people to change their behaviour when the results might not be apparent to them for some time.
“As an infectious disease doctor, a few weeks ago it was very clear to me that we were going to have to figure out a better and more intense way of reaching out and getting people to understand the ‘stay home’ part,” Barrett said in a phone interview.
“I had posted something along the lines of ‘step up, not out’ on my Facebook a couple of Saturdays ago and (Revolve) took it and turned it into a whole thing.”
Otto, who said one of Revolve’s values is caring, framed the task for staff.
“I kind of said, ‘Hey, I had a chat with my friend, Dr. Barrett. Here’s the issue that the health system is dealing with. Why don’t we take this on as a little bit of a project that we can push out socially to get the message out to listen to the authorities and stay home?’
“And that led to building out a full campaign.”
As of last week, “Step Up. Not Out.” had reached over 200,000 Canadians on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where people are encouraged to engage with @stepupnotout. Otto said Revolve research shows that there will eventually be millions of impressions, thanks to the participation of a range of media vendors.
Barrett said this is a tough period motivationally, making the effort particularly timely.
“The numbers aren’t as bad as other places, the weather is getting nicer, people are fatiguing of the social distance, and they don’t get that now is actually the time to be as rigid as possible for the next two to three weeks, to get us past that peak before we start to release things a little bit.”
The doctor stressed that the campaign amplifies information from the Health Department.
“It was taking public health messages and expanding the reach in different ways,” she said.
“The goal was to contextualize the public health message to new groups and expand that reach.”
Originally developed for social media, “Step Up. Not Out.” quickly expanded to Revolve’s media vendors across the country. That includes regional players like SaltWire Network, publisher of The Chronicle Herald and other titles in Atlantic Canada, and national outlets like Bell Media, Stingray, Rogers and Pattison Outdoor Advertising.
“We buy a lot of media for clients, and we’ve got a good relationship with these guys so they were pretty quick to come on board,” said Otto.
However, the COVID-19 project is different from Revolve’s regular work in that it’s not a money maker.
“No client. This is a hundred per cent pro bono,” Otto said.
Revolve, like most workplaces that have the capability, has employees contributing remotely from home. The company entered this period of upheaval on a busy note, and there’s some work in the pipeline for a bit.
As of last week, one out of 40 workers had been laid off.
“You know, we’re watching it week by week,” said Otto.
“We keep expecting that every Monday morning we’re going to have additional, and so far we have not.”
