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C+C
C+C worked in partnership with the Washington State Department of Health on a campaign to help reduce overdose deaths caused by opioids. Six phases of research helped the team narrow the campaign focus to one intervention to help save lives: overcoming stigma to get more people in the community to have and know how to use naloxone. The campaign idea, Prevent Overdose WA/No más sobredosis WA, used animation to tell the story of someone using naloxone to save a friend's life in an act of compassionate love and care. The campaign showed how to effectively identify an overdose and how to stop it.
The primary objective was to increase the number of people who are aware of, carry and know how to use naloxone in WA. Primary audiences included people who use opioids and those who care about them – both motivated by the potential to save a life. Barriers included not having naloxone, not knowing how to get it or use it. A huge challenge was the broad stigma associated with opioid use. The campaign needed to inspire audiences to:
Think: I can help save the life of someone I care about
Feel: Confident, empowered, and prepared
Do: Carry naloxone and intervene in the event of an overdose
The campaign creative used compassionate and non-judgmental messaging and tonality. Concept testing and stakeholder outreach showed the campaign was well received by priority audiences as a model of how to promote harm reduction while also addressing stigma. Most importantly, the campaign drove behavior change, with a 14% increase in statewide naloxone awareness among English-speakers and a 11% increase among Spanish-speakers, and a 98% increase in naloxone orders in the 13 targeted counties during the campaign period. We also drove 188K unique visitors to the 500K+ social media engagements.
Our priority audience is diverse in terms of demographics, geography and socioeconomics across the state, so our creative needed to be accessible and relevant to all – for this reason, we chose an animated style rather than the casting limitations that live action can present. The media campaign emphasized populations disproportionately affected by opioid overdose, including males, young adults, Hispanics, African Americans, American Indian/Alaska Natives, and people living in 13 counties with higher overdose death rates.
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