Bringing Public Health Campaign to Life: The Power of Animation

public health campaign

When communicating a Public Health campaign, the objective is clear. You have an important message, and you need that message to be seen and heard.

You’re not looking for applause on your marketing campaign, you’re looking for impact. However, conveying these complex messages to diverse audiences can be a challenge in itself.

With so much noise to compete with and a million different routes you could take, it’s hard to know where to start. 

We have a good starting point. Animation.

But why? Why use animation?

And more specifically...

Why use animation in the Public Health sector?

Simplifying complex information

Within the Public Health sector, there is a need for simplifying complex information. With potentially intricate topics and possibly sensitive information, it’s important to simplify this to a point where a wide audience can understand and digest it easily. Animation succeeds at breaking down these complex subjects into easily digestible visuals, making the information accessible to a wider audience.

Retention of information

If we asked you to recall your favourite marketing or PR campaign, we can pretty much guarantee that the majority of people will be able to recall a visual first. Whether it be a social media video advert, a TikTok campaign, or even a TV advertisement. Our brains are trained to remember visually. 

Did you know that visuals are received 60,000 times faster in the brain than text? When you think about it, it means our brains are crying out for more visuals… Luckily more and more platforms are also favouring video content- just like our brains!

Humanising sensitive information

Taking a sensitive topic and turning it into fun, engaging content is not the easiest job in the world and it’s very much a common challenge within public health communication. 

Animation is a medium that can be used to approach these subjects with empathy and sensitivity. We want to make the topic seem more relatable and less intimidating, which we can do through relatable characters and stories, allowing the audience to form a deeper emotional connection.

Proven case studies

We have previously devised a successful campaign for The Department of Health and Social Care to support their objectives in educating the sector on the importance of Digital Techology implementation.

The DHSC wanted to educate the Social Care Sector about the introduction of technology and what support was available to help them through the transition. As with many sectors, the Social Care space has historically been resistant to change, therefore video content in the space can be quite generic. It's a sector that is hard to create visuals for without resorting to generic stock footage. 

This is why the animation needed to be unique, punchy and engaging. It had to take what could be an overwhelming subject and reassure people quickly.  We wanted to stay away from corporate and clinical content and bring warmth and softness to the story, through the characters. The video was an overwhelming success, with excellent feedback given from both social workers and patients. 

Check out one of the videos here (or read more about the campaign here).

Don’t just take our word for it. There have been several other effective and successful Public Health campaigns that involve animation. 

A popular one that springs to mind is the NHS Change4Life campaign. Targeted at the whole family, from infants to the elderly, the Change4Life campaign directly used animation to create a series of videos to make their message more engaging for everyone. The adverts are simple, with a clear message- not too clinical or intimidating- but effective and captivating. If you haven’t seen them, you can find an example here.

Making animation the pillar of your health campaign

The best public health campaigns (including the two examples above) use animation in more than one way. You've probably seen organisations invest time and money into creating an excellent video, only to share it once and nothing else happens.

This is where you have an advantage. 

You see, an animation video can be used for so many things. It can be cut into smaller videos to highlight specific topics or you can reuse characters in other areas of your brand. You can even turn still images into an infographic. 

By creating characters within your animation, you have a story to tell, and you can take your target audience on a journey of emotional engagement. A story they can relate to and identify with. In turn, this will ultimately contribute to increasing engagement across every demographic you're targeting.

How do you get started?

Every campaign starts somewhere. The first step has always been learning how animation can help your campaign, and now you're armed with this knowledge and all of the benefits, the starting point becomes even simpler. 

Choosing the right animation studio to create the perfect campaign. 

As a purpose-led animation and illustration studio, we have a track record of successful animation campaigns in the positive impact space. Our aim is to create compelling narratives that not only inform the public but make the world a better place, without compromising on creative excellence.

We’re here to get you started on your journey, so schedule a virtual coffee today for a no-obligation chat.

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram