Pandemic Communications

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

3rd Interagency Meeting on Strategic Communications for Avian/Pandemic Influenza

Washington, DC

February 28, 2008

Effective Pandemic Flu Communications Strategies

• Agenda– Current HHS Pan Flu communications strategies

and tactics– Today’s communications environment– HHS Response: Stakeholder outreach & new

media– Discussion

Past & On-going Activities

• PandemicFlu.gov

• Checklists

• Media outreach

• Message mapping

• Audience research

• Public Service Announcements

• Communications exercises

Current Communications Challenges

• Media hype around “bird flu” has died down

• Resources are scarce

• The communications landscape has changed

• Government is not viewed as a trusted source of information

HHS Approach: Go Local and Embrace New Media

• Identify trusted sources and enlist their support

• Engage interested audiences – look to on-line communities and social networking sites

• Embrace new media and the opportunities it presents

Take the Lead: Working Together to Prepare Now

A campaign to provide

community leaders

with information & resources

they can use to help citizens

prepare now for a pandemic.

Campaign Elements

• Audience identification & research

• Partnership outreach

• Advertising

• Toolkit

• “Collaboratory” project – a pilot project to test the strategy

Take the Lead Campaign Collaboratory Project

Seattle, WA

Cache Co, UT

San Diego, CA

Aberdeen, ND/SD

St. Louis, MO

New Philadelphia, OH

Wilmington, DE

Savannah, GA

Burlington, VT

Seattle, WA

Cache Co, UT

San Diego, CA

Aberdeen, ND/SD

St. Louis, MO

New Philadelphia, OH

Wilmington, DE

Savannah, GA

Burlington, VT

Proposed HHS Pandemic Influenza Collaboratory Locations

New media – endless possibilities

• Websites, blogs, wikis, videos

HHS New Media Initiatives

• Blog Summit – June 2007

• Flu Wiki Q&A – February 2008

• Blogger Tabletop Exercise – March 2008

• Webinar Series Plan First

Blog Summit

Blog Summit – Results

• Stats:– Site visits = 39,162– Unique visitors = 19,765

(6 continents, 113 countries, 50 states) – Page views = 132,619– Inbound links = 344 links

(from 110 blogs)– RSS subscriptions = 811

• flutracker Says: Sec. Leavitt: Thank you to you and the HHS . . . for this blog. It has been interesting and enlightening. I hope HHS and other federal and state agencies and legislators will take from this experiment the idea that direct communication with the citizens in this manner works well and benefits everyone involved.

• Bravo and congrats to the Health and Human Services Department for its innovation and courage. If a government agency can step out of its comfort zone and explore avenues to engage and leverage conversations online think of what a Big Brand or medical center, or non profit or school or business or .. or .. or .. As the saying goes, you are limited by only your imagination and a little bit of chutzpah.”

Flu Wiki Q&A

• 12 questions on six topics submitted to Dr. Raub by members of the Flu Wiki community

Blogger Tabletop Exercise

• March 17, 2008• Builds upon Spring 2007 tabletops with

MSM• Pan flu, news, political, health and lifestyle

bloggers plus on-line journalists and select traditional reporters

• Federal officials: Secretary Leavitt, Dr. Gerberding, Dr. Raub, Dr. Gellin

Discussion

• Keeping pandemic flu planning relevant

• Stakeholder outreach

• New media opportunties

• “Just in time” messages and materials development

• An all-hazards approach to AI/PI communications