Using Social Marketing to Promote COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake: A Case Study from the “AUBe Vaccinated” Campaign

Abstract

The availability of and access to COVID-19 vaccines has been challenging in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), coupled with mistrust in public health organizations instigated by misinformation and disinformation diffused by traditional and social media. In the Spring of 2021, the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon spearheaded a nationwide vaccination drive with the ambitious goal of vaccinating its entire community by the beginning of the academic year 2021–2022, as the campus was due to be opened only to vaccinated individuals. This case study outlines the development, implementation, and evaluation of a social marketing campaign to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations among members of the AUB community, comprising students, faculty, staff, and dependents. Following French and Evans’ 2020 guidelines, we implemented an evidence-based and co-designed strategy to maximize the availability and facilitate vaccine access. The campaign used a mix of methods to convince the segments of the population to receive their shots before accessing campus, resulting in a 98% uptake among the community segments within three months (July–September 2021). In this case study, we reflect on the experience and share suggestions for future research and applications that other higher education institutions could use to address similar problems.

Previous Vaccination History and Psychological Factors as Significant Predictors of Willingness to Receive Mpox Vaccination and a Favorable Attitude towards Compulsory Vaccination

“…On the other hand, confidence and collective responsibility levels were significantly lower among the Mpox vaccine hesitancy group (range of agreement 37–59%), and much lower among the vaccine resistance group (6% to 29% level of agreement). Prior evidence highlighted the value of elaboration on vaccine safety and efficacy in the communication strategies aiming to promote vaccination [ 93 , 94 ]. Additionally, previous studies in the context of different types of vaccines, including those for COVID-19, seasonal influenza, and human papillomavirus (HPV), have highlighted the importance of vaccine confidence, including trust in health institutions and professionals as a valuable tool to address vaccination hesitancy [ 95 , 96 , 97 ].…”

Tackling the COVID-19 infodemic among Syrian refugees in Lebanon: Development and evaluation of the “Wikaytek” tool

“…We applied social marketing principles to define the behavioral change strategy to promote COVID-19 among Syrian refugees, knowing that it has been used in the context of COVID-19 vaccination interventions among various populations. 59 – 61 According to social marketing and as recommended by Truman et al, 25 we codesigned a solution to deliver important COVID-19-related information.…”

“…Social marketing has been applied to develop and implement COVID-19 vaccination interventions among various populations. 59 – 61 …”

Impact of the Social Marketing-Based Intervention on Preconception Healthy Behaviors of Women With Sickle Cell Disease

“…The review of intervention studies based on the social marketing approach shows that the success of such an approach was through increasing awareness [ 14 ]; changing, improving, and modifying attitudes [ 15 ]; and changing behavior [ 16 ]. Many examples of successful interventions based on social marketing in areas, such as the use of nutritional supplements among women of reproductive age [ 17 ], encouraging women to participate more in prenatal care [ 18 ], promoting natural childbirth [ 19 ], promotion of COVID-19 vaccination [ 20 ], smoking cessation [ 21 ], AIDS control [ 22 ], and healthy eating [ 23 ], have been reported.…”