Copy of The Ad Industry Gives COVID Relief a Shot in the Arm

I am really proud of my fellow advertising pros.

The recently released user-generated content (UGC) campaign to encourage people to get the COVID vaccine is brilliant. Hats off to the provocatively named agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address that put this inspired "Because of This" communications effort together. Well done!

And, because of Mischief's smart strategy and their innovative approach to gather "as authentic as you can get" content, I believe that this campaign is going to save thousands of lives.

Mischief went out and searched on social media for real scenes from normal times that we just can't do now because of this dang COVID thing.

Things that we took for granted just over a year ago like...playing on the floor with a grandchild, or hugging a best friend when they announced they were engaged, or doing a huge family group hug/dance when a family member gets into their dream college, or....you get the picture.

It is these "pictures" that we all can totally relate to. And these are the "pictures" that we all long to return to as soon as possible.

In their straightforward, objective-solution approach, Mischief clearly and simply communicates that taking the vaccine shot can get us all back there.

What is truly innovative about this campaign is that it is not Madison Avenue connecting with Hollywood to create these perfectly scripted, perfectly shot emotional snippets. These real-life, actual people visual stories were already out there on various social media platforms. Someone just had to go find them and connect the dots for us.

As Mischief's CCO Greg Hahn told Ad Age: "Mischief sifted through real scenes the agency found on social channels and other outlets and obtained approval from the creators. 'We tried to pick a wide variety - the joyous moments like someone having a baby, or the spontaneous, which is what the hug was about. We just wanted to capture the emotion and raw energy.'"

"And because the videos are truly authentic, they feel even more emotional - that's the power of UGC." stated the Marketing Brew newsletter.

According to Social Media Week, real user-generated content can be almost 10 times more influential than influencer content [where a well-known person endorses an idea or product] for consumers in their purchase decisions. And, given this going on year two COVID problem, we need 10x more influence to get our worlds back to normal.

This new campaign's emotional, personal phone-shot videos end with concise, to-the-point copy, presented in a "Jeopardy!-like" "answer, then question" format, such as:

Answers:

Because you can't hug a computer screen.

Because some people you want to meet in person.

Because "hellos" have gotten too rare. And "goodbyes" have gotten too hard.

With each answer, the crucial "question" is always the same:

Why will you will get vaccinated?

Just awesome stuff.

This is what we call in our business "brilliant persuasion."

And this brilliant persuasion is certainly needed since - as a December NPR poll revealed - almost 30% of Americans are still somewhat reluctant to take the vaccine. We all know that the more we can get our fellow Americans to take the vaccine, the sooner we can hug those special people in our lives again.

This is such an important national task that our industry must participate. After all, it is the advertising industry which prides itself on being experts in the art of human persuasion. The more we can persuade people to roll up their sleeves, the healthier we will all be.

Not since the Rosie the Riveter campaign in the 1940s, which inspired women to become involved in the national World War II effort, has a national communications campaign meant so much.

Let's hope for all our sakes that this "Because of This" campaign will have equal success.