Strategy
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) created a campaign to increase awareness and uptake of routine and recommended vaccines, dispel common myths about vaccines, educate Coloradans on vaccines and the diseases they protect against, and address mis/disinformation.
Challenge
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine distrust and hesitancy has increased across the U.S., contributing to lower vaccine confidence and uptake. In Colorado, the challenge was to build vaccine confidence and increase vaccination rates to bolster protection against vaccine-preventable diseases. The CDPHE contracted with Idea Marketing to develop a multi-generational communication effort aimed at building trust in vaccines and increasing uptake of recommended vaccines statewide. CDPHE created a comprehensive system of research-driven messaging strategies and communications assets tailored to different audiences and deployed the assets through multi-layered campaigns across the state.
Solution
Implementation activities fell within five workstreams: research, creative development, media planning, campaign execution, and campaign evaluation. CDPHE conducted primary and secondary research to uncover audience insights, barriers, and motivators to then shape the campaign strategy and messaging. The research phase included a review of 82 other vaccine campaigns, a literature review, 14 total focus groups broken down for each vaccination effort (e.g., respiratory, childhood, adolescent, niche audiences), five quantitative surveys capturing the input of 1,430 total Colorado participants, and creative testing of concepts including 340 participants. The research phase resulted in specific recommendations for each campaign. CDPHE created awareness videos and educational assets for respiratory vaccines and childhood/adolescent vaccines.
The project resulted in four distinct vaccine campaigns, Seasonal Respiratory, Childhood, Adolescent, and Vaccines Save Lives, with 15 sub-campaigns. The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals recently named the “Show Up for Tomorrow” a Platinum Winner of the 2026 Hermes Creative Awards under the Strategic and Integrated Campaigns – Social marketing category.
The “Show Up for Tomorrow” respiratory awareness concept focuses on what people miss when illness gets in the way, including life’s big and small moments. The “One Thing Never Changes” childhood/adolescent awareness concept is rooted in how every parent’s instinct to protect their child remains constant as their child ages, reframing vaccination as an act of deep love. Beyond the 280 videos made as part of the awareness component, CDPHE created 658 educational assets including videos with Colorado health care providers (1 to 1.5 minutes long, targeting Boomers and Generation X), hybrid videos blending doctor interviews and animation (45 seconds to 1 minute long, targeting Millennials), and flash bit videos (6 to 15 seconds long, targeting Gen Z). The assets were deployed through multi-layered campaigns across the state, through outlets such as paid search, digital, Meta, TikTok, and YouTube. All media plans included outlets that required the development of assets such as videos, statics, digital displays, interstitials, and printable materials. CDPHE also designed and developed five new landing pages on the CDPHE website, embedding awareness and educational videos as they were finalized. In response to federal vaccine policy changes, the sub-campaign “Vaccines Save Lives” was created to reassure and educate Coloradans about vaccine safety, debunk the lingering autism myth, address misinformation and anti-vaccine rhetoric, and strengthen trust through clear, science-based messaging.
Outcome
The research revealed many key insights and recommendations, all of which informed the creative development, strategy, and approach. During the primary research phase, one thing stood out: health care providers are some of the top influencers when it comes to health care decisions. In addition, primary research revealed that most people do not like being told what to do. They prefer to receive information and then make their own decisions. There are many key educational gaps about vaccines, and to change behaviors, that education needs to come from trusted sources. Research has shown that campaign messaging would be more effective if it encouraged people to talk with their health care providers about vaccines, rather than simply encouraging vaccination.
Research has consistently shown that no single media channel effectively reaches an entire target audience. Media consumption is becoming increasingly fragmented. Employing multiple ad formats increases overall reach, improves message frequency across diverse audiences, and helps ensure campaign messages are accessible to residents with different media habits. Short-form content is in high demand and is the preferred type of content for most audiences. “Drop-off risk” increases with every extra second in a video, so content needs to be quick to engage and easy to digest.
During the creative development process, Idea Marketing conducted 19 interviews with Colorado health care providers. Each interview lasted 30-60 minutes and covered a wide range of vaccine-related topics. As the final doctor videos and hybrid videos used a fraction of the total interview content, CDPHE still has a wealth of raw footage and audio from these interviews that can be used moving forward for other educational purposes.
A major contributor to the success was the strong partnership with Idea Marketing. Mutual trust and shared vision helped build something truly special that resonated with Coloradans at a time of ever-increasing doubt in vaccines. CDPHE was able to advocate for more creative approaches to vaccine messaging than what has been done in the past. CDPHE was also able to demonstrate great agility with developing and implementing the Vaccines Save Lives campaign following federal vaccine policy changes.
Supplemental Materials