COVID-19 vaccines were a historic moment, met with worldwide applause and great relief. But the vaccine roll-out plan was complicated, chaotic and muddied by misinformation. A huge scientific achievement quickly became the most important mass-consumer message of our lifetime.

Rising to the occasion, Comcast-NBCUniversal leveraged their unmatched footprint and news engine capabilities to create the antidote to the confusion: an interactive, multilingual tool for Americans to find answers and book local vaccination appointments for themselves and their loved ones.

The brief was clear: create a compelling, clear campaign that inspired people to get the information they needed to plan their vaccine. Our objectives were to 1) drive usage of the digital tool, 2) Awaken as many Americans as possible to the existence of the tool with zero paid media, and 3) spark advocacy beyond the reach of NBCUniversal so our tool would become known by the general public.

With rampant misinformation and a (still ongoing) global pandemic, to breakthrough we needed to be as clear as possible. We launched with an intentionally simple, modular platform: Plan Your Vaccine. We created a flexible brand operating system that allowed the effort to scale across multiple partners, react to culture, and adapt to media.

Our creative addressed the most topical vaccine questions Americans had, including eligibility, state-by-state guidelines, and vaccination locations. In February 2021, when vaccine eligibility was limited to specific groups, we focused on the message to “plan your vaccine, so you’ll be ready when it’s your turn.” Moving into mid-April, when the vaccine-eligible population had expanded, the message became “roll up your sleeves, and plan your vaccine.”

Starting with NBC News Groups, and scaling across all of NBCU, we created a multibillion impression public health campaign to inspire people to get information and make an appointment to be vaccinated.

We needed an approach that could flex with the evolving messages of a very complicated vaccine rollout, and thread the needle by being information-driven while rooted in an impassioned (yet apolitical) public health cause. Our campaign tapped into the truth that the vaccine isn’t just about self-protection, it’s a gift of community compassion. By making a public health initiative feel like a cultural movement, we could help inspire Americans everywhere to take the first step for themselves and their community.

We addressed vaccinations with all American people, meaning an incredibly diverse, wide-ranging audience. Some communities had rightful hesitations regarding equitable access to the healthcare system, so we needed to be intentional about who we chose as those community voices of advocacy. Our partner, Telemundo, took the “Planifica Tu Vacuna” campaign to local community leaders to increase trust and support of the tool with an audience that was crucial to reach.

In order to be effective, this campaign needed to scale in a massive way, including translating for Mandarin and Spanish speaking audiences. We leveraged the entire Comcast-NBCUniversal ecosystem, and created assets for their news programming (TODAY, MSNBC, Telemundo), entertainment properties (Bravo, E!), and audiences like Indy500 watchers, Universal Parks visitors, and WWE fans.

Placements included broadcast and streaming TV across NBCU networks and Peacock, digital banners and video across NBCUniversal digital platforms including their sites and YouTube, a social push on owned social channels and organic posting on talent social channels, and OOH placements throughout Universal Parks.

We launched in February 2021, when only select groups were eligible for the vaccine, and wrapped by June 2021 when everyone was fully eligible. Key media beats included National Doctor’s Day, NBC Season Finale Week, Mothers Day, Fathers Day and the Indy 500 to reach as wide of an audience as possible.

We were able to secure more than 120 talent to participate in the campaign, creating 110 on-air assets, 49 social assets, and 35 digital banners. These efforts resulted in 7.26M+ page views, 4.5M+ uniques, and 62% direct traffic. While every vaccination campaign mattered, ours had the most reach, as Plan Your Vaccine was used by more Americans than our two leading competitors.