*This is a summary of the workshops held at the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing. I have tried my best to cover all the essential details to get started :)
The Current Digital Landscape - Situation Analysis
Digital has changed rapidly, and so has the behavior of the digital consumer. In order to efficiently deliver a message at scale, it is important to have a clear understanding of the current situation.
Let's zoom out and take a look at the global state of things(Click here to read the Full Report)
If you compare the internet reach against tv reach its very close(TV reach 69%), however digital effectively reaches a population that does not watch tv much, especially the youth.
Let's zoom in a little bit, what's the possible percentage reach in Sri Lanka?
It's over 50%, and growing at 4.9%. Digital marketing has become a great tool to get incremental reach, to build awareness to drive actions.
Let's zoom in a little closer, how has user behavior changed?
It's interesting to see there is a significant portion that says they do not watch TV at all, if that's the case then the best alternative is to reach these users through digital, which has currently become the replacement for Tv and Radio. (Click here for the full report).
We are spending more time on mobile, and also consuming a high percentage of video content. It's very clear that users prefer mobile videos, and we need to create mobile first videos for effective communication.
Expected outcomes - Objectives
The key objective of this workshop was to understand how to create awareness and drive actions using digital channels.
The team at ministry of health wanted to be able to have 300 confirmed appointments for checkups every month.
In order to have 300 confirmed appointments, it is safe to assume that at least 300,000 needs to clear understand the message and find it relevant. Then our next challenge was how to do we reach 300,000 people?
In order to answer this we need to have a clear strategy.
Who do we reach? What message do we reach them with? How do we Reach Them? - Strategy.
Who do we Reach?
Case 1: Breast Cancer Patient User Persona - Kanthi
Age : 35+
Demographic - Most vulnerable segment is low-income families with low literacy rates.
Interests: Local Teledramas, Youtube, Facebook, IMO,
*Further information that will help to clearly identify the audience, and their preferences will help us get better results for the campaign.
once we have a clear understanding of who our target audience is, it is important to understand what are the motivators and barriers for them to signup for the service, for them to schedule an appointment.
Once we have the motivators/Barries it is important to understand how to bring it out as a concept. The above diagram provides a simple framework to come up with a concept.
Our Message
We can use the above-discussed framework to come up with ideas to communicate our message. It needs to get attention and needs to resonate with the relevant audience.
One of the key Motivators to get a check-up done is the fact that early detection can prevent death. We did a quick exercise to understand quick ways to bring the ideas to life. This was fun. Check it out :D
Here's another one from our Oral Cancer group.
How do we target the relevant audience?
Your instinct might tell you, the best way to target them is to narrow down as much as you can from the information that you have about the customer or the target audience. But, in reality Facebook AI knows best how to find the relevant users based on the signals they give out on meta family of apps.
Today our focus should be on creatives that can communicate to the relevant audience, meta family of apps knows users in order to find the best user to deliver the ad to, at the most effective placement as well.
Although we considered the example of Facebook, this is true for all advertising.
As opposed to other mediums, digital campaign effectiveness can easily be measured. This capability can be used to test multiple iterations to identify the most effective ad or concept. Once you identify something that works, you can easily build on it.
Here's a great series of ads built on a single concept.
The Future, What's in Store?
Web has gone through a major transformation in the last 10 years, it has accelerated how we experience things and it has also enabled us to be able to share and communicate in an effective way.
What's next, where do we go from here?
We don't have to go anywhere, this is already here. Virtual Reality is changing how we communicate, how we experience things.
Here's a quick video of Dr.Thilakarathne trying out a VR experience on the Metaverse.
A few key applications consist of Creating Visual guides for patients to ensure they understand the gravity of the risks of cancer, how to prevent them, and most importantly how to early detect.
I was really impressed by how driven our doctors and medical staff are when it comes to creating an impact on society at large, truly thankful for all their service and I am truly grateful to have the opportunity to conduct this session.