Millennial Marketing

Tapping into the power of FOMO

About the Project

Millenial MarketingWith a dwindling number of millennials opting to get a flu shot in recent years, VDH hired VANCE to launch a public health initiative to motivate millennials (Virginia 18-25 year olds) to get vaccinated during the 2014-15 season.

A study, led by students at the University of Richmond, suggested that a campaign leveraging FOMO, otherwise known as a “Fear of Missing Out” would motivate millennials to get vaccinated against the flu.

Approach

We presented a number of campaign names to capture the theme and ultimately landed on the tag:
“Miss the Flu. Not your Life.”

A study, led by students at the University of Richmond, suggested that a campaign leveraging FOMO, otherwise known as a “Fear of Missing Out” would motivate millennials to get vaccinated against the flu.

At the heart of the campaign was 30 second video, produced by Parkwood Creative, featuring young adult characters who missed out on vacations, concerts and sporting events because they were sick with the flu. Each character shares a cautionary tale and expressing regret for having skipped the flu shot that year.

The TV spot aired for 3 weeks during peak flu season (January-February) on late night cable programming (if any millennials are watching TV at all, it’s late night!). But our primary focus was to reach young adults online.

To that end, we designed PPC campaigns on Facebook and Google (YouTube Instream) to maximize visibility of the campaign and drive Virginia millennials to the campaign website to find out where to get a flu shot.

Lastly, we collaborated with Parkwood Creative to create social media materials, including a digital flyer and preloaded messages for Twitter and Facebook, local health departments could use to promote the campaign on their local social media channels.

At the heart of the campaign was 30 second video, produced by Parkwood Creative, featuring young adult characters who missed out on vacations, concerts and sporting events because they were sick with the flu. Each character shares a cautionary tale and expressing regret for having skipped the flu shot that year.

Results

The 10-week pilot campaign earned roughly 12 million impressions and drew upwards of 9,000 millennials to the campaign website to find out where to get a flu shot.

The Takeaway

It pays to understand what motivates your audience.
10 weeks
1 video
3 characters
12 million impressions
9,000 millennials
How to motivate millennials - digital marketing
How to motivate millennials - digital ad
How to motivate millennials to get a flu shot

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