IPHCA
The Disease Handbook
Art Director: Sophia Caravella
The pandemic taught us a lot of things, most importantly how crucial it is to stay healthy by receiving vaccines and booster shots. It also taught us that when it comes to sickness (COVID, influenza, or otherwise) many of our friends, family, and neighbors feel invincible to their effects when that’s simply not true.
Reaching the “Invincibles”
The Illinois Primary Healthcare Association (IPHCA) came to Impact Managed Marketing (IMM), they wanted to reach one of the most overly confident cross sections of central Illinois: students and young adults aged 18-25 (otherwise known as the “Invincibles”) along with young parents. But how do you cut through the noise to convince an audience with a notoriously short attention span who feel impervious to things like disease?
Strategy
Introducing: Germy
In just 3 short months and with a budget of $75k, IMM needed to create a PSA that was like nothing else being broadcast; that meant looking at the past to create something entirely new. Thus “Germy” was born. Inspired by animated classics like Betty Boop, Steamboat Willie, and classic how-to videos featuring Goofy, the IPHCA :30 spot would be anachronistic, featuring a shamelessly out-of-touch narrator to bring humor to our young audience. We wanted to show just how simple it is to keep your body protected against disease by showing a bumbling mascot like Germy failing to infect members of our audience.
Delivering the message
In-market: 4 months
Reach: 526,000
Completion rate: 84%
Hulu impressions: 2,696,369
Target audience impressions: 1,754,672
Organic views (YouTube): 300,435
Bringing Germy Into the Real World
With an unprecedented completion rate of 84% (over 441,000 Illinoisans), we more than held our audiences’ attention to deliver an important healthcare message that would go on to save lives. It was because of this success that we rolled out Germy to other mediums.
From a guerrilla sticker campaign and bus wraps to billboards and gas pumps, Germy’s message spread just like the diseases were trying to prevent.