Health

36,000 Americans die from the flu each year. A shot can save a life.

Stick with the Flu Shot

The Challenge: Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans come down with the flu. For people with asthma, the illness can be especially deadly, yet only 10 percent of children and 39 percent of adults get vaccinated annually.

Our Approach: With the American Lung Association, Fenton kicked off the flu season two years in a row with a campaign we dubbed, “Stick with the Flu Shot.” We worked with Lung Association researchers to package a report with a state-level data on hospitalizations that could be avoided if every child with asthma got the shot. We produced B-roll, a satellite media tour and audio news release to encourage broadcast coverage, and promoted a new feature on the ALA’s Web site that enables people to type in their zip code to find the closest vaccine distributor. We also cycled ALA spokespeople into breaking news developments — the release of a new nasal spray vaccine one year and the CDC’s announcement of a vaccination shortage the next.

Progress, Accelerated: The campaign scored coverage from mainstream, parenting, women’s and health media, reaching an estimated 100 million people in places like USA Today Weekend, Parade, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, and TV affiliates from Florida to New Mexico. At its peak, the Lung Association Web site was receiving millions of hits a day.