Evaluation of the “We Can Do This” Campaign Paid Media and COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake, United States, December 2020–January 2022

Abstract

Public education campaigns are promising methods for promoting vaccine uptake. In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the We Can Do This COVID-19 public education campaign. This study is one of the first evaluations of this COVID-19 public education campaign. We tested associations between channel-specific campaign exposure (i.e. digital, TV, radio, print, and out-of-home advertising) and COVID-19 first-dose vaccinations among a nationally representative online sample of 3,278 adults. The study introduces novel ways to simultaneously evaluate short- and long-term cumulative media dose, filling an important gap in campaign evaluation literature. We observed a positive, statistically significant relationship between the short-term change in digital media dose and the likelihood of first-dose vaccination, and a positive, statistically significant relationship between long-term cumulative TV dose and the likelihood of first-dose vaccination. Results suggest that both digital and TV ads contributed to vaccination, such that digital media was associated with more immediate behavioral changes, whereas TV gradually shifted behaviors over time. As findings varied by media channel, this study suggests that public education campaigns should consider delivering campaign messages across multiple media channels to enhance campaign reach across audiences.