Good morning,
In Evolutionary Ideas, Sam Tatam, Global Principal of Behavioural Science at Ogilvy, shares a fascinating story of how the Indian government and UNICEF with JWT came up with a commitment strategy to ensure children got their full dose of vaccination.
He writes: “In 2019 an estimated 5.2 million children under five years died mostly from preventable and treatable causes. One of the most cost-effective approaches to prevent this tragedy is vaccination.
In 2017, to help close the immunisation gap in India, UNICEF partnered with the Indian government to develop a creative solution that would help parents to follow through with their children’s vaccinations. “We created a unique range of toys so that they would keep people coming back,” says Sambit Mohanty, former national creative director at advertising agency JWT in India. But this is only half the story.
While citizens of western countries may quarrel over the dangers of vaccination, incomplete and incorrect immunisation remains a significant public health problem across the planet. Although India’s programme is now one of the world’s largest, in 2016 38% of children still failed to receive all basic vaccines in the first year of life.
Reported Mohanty, “Even if they do take their child for one shot, parents don’t understand that one shot isn’t enough and that the child needs to complete a full vaccination.” While it might feel beneficial to have one shot, as is now all too familiar from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s far from job done.
They were facing a problem of half measures.
Cleverly mirroring the challenge of incomplete immunisation, the team from JWT created a novel series of gifts, including small wooden elephants, sparrows and rocking horses. The brilliance was that these were only given to children one half at a time.
They were gifts of half-measures.
“Half-toys were symbolic of incomplete immunisation,” says Mohanty. “The other half became an incentive to come to the camp again and complete the circle.” The team found this incentivisation model to be an effective commitment, particularly in a region where education, social economic status, literacy and religious bias were limiting complete immunisation. For a country as heterogeneous as it gets, explains Mohanty, “this was a solution that crossed borders.”
Have a great day!