St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (STHK) Communications Team partnered with Saint Helens Rugby League Club to deliver their ‘Let’s Tackle Covid Together’ campaign ahead of a fixture against local rivals Warrington RLFC.
The campaign sought to increase uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine by men aged 30-40 in St Helens, building on the success of the ‘Let’s Make St Helens Proud’ campaign from October 2020.
THE ISSUE
In a week when the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 and COVID-19 hospital admission rates increased in the North West (Source: Office for National Statistics – Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey), STHK, who run the St Helens Mass Vaccination Centre, set out to deliver as many vaccines as possible by reaching groups who seemed hesitant to take up the offer of the COVID-19 jab.
Across the age groups vaccinated to date, the percentage of men and women taking up the vaccine were largely equal. However, in the younger age groups, a larger gap was identified between men and women having the vaccine (in St Helens/the region), with just 66% of men compared to 74.5% of women in the 35-39 years category, and 45.4% of men compared to 56.6% of women in the 30-34 years category.
As part of Men’s Health Week and with a big Rugby League match lined up, this presented a prime opportunity to close the 10% vaccination gap between the genders.
REACHING OUT
St Helens Rugby League Club have hosted the STHK Mass Vaccination Centre at their stadium since December 2020. In this time, STHK have built a strong relationship with Saints management and media teams, and it seemed only natural to approach them to support our campaign. Because of the target demographic, Saints players and their Head Coach were chosen to deliver the vaccination messages, using strong local role models to influence younger male ticket holders through social media films and by getting vaccinated themselves.
The campaign also had the full backing from the most senior executives of both organisations.
Ann Marr OBE, Chief Executive said: “COVID-19 has affected all of our lives, and at our hospitals we have seen first-hand the devastation this deadly virus can have.
“We continue to encourage anyone who is yet to have the vaccine to protect not just themselves but their families too.
“We also want to say a massive thank you to everyone at Saints.
“Throughout the entire pandemic they have been extremely proactive in supporting us with important safety messages to our local community. The drop-in vaccination sessions on matchday is just another example of the fantastic partnership we have, with the health of our local community paramount for both organisations.”
Saints CEO Mike Rush commented “We have been working closely with the Trust since the vaccination programme began and we are happy to again offer our stadium for the drop-in clinic for our fans.
“Some of our eligible players have received the vaccine this week and we would encourage anyone who can, to have it at the match.”
PRESS COVERAGE
A press release containing drop-in session details, was shared with local media sources, and featured on television Sky Sports, BBC Northwest Tonight, and Granada Reports, along with radio coverage on Radio Merseyside and Bauer Radio, and in local press including the St Helens Star, Liverpool Echo, and national press and online in the Daily Mirror.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Whole organic campaign activity included 18 social media posts including 5 short films featuring Saints Players and Head Coach, Kristian Woolf.
The films were shared from the 15th June to the 17th June in the build-up to and during the match.
This social media activity had an overall reach of 620, 564 on both STHK and Saints Facebook Pages and 109, 645 impressions on Twitter. The support of Saints helped STHK to reach up to eight times more people via their social media channels.
| STHK | SAINTS | COMBINED | |
| Total Reach | 117230 | 503334 | 620,564 |
| Total Impressions (organic) | 120987
|
530216 | 651,203 |
| Total Shares | 286 | 493 | 779 |
| Total Likes | 2069
|
7127 | 9196 |
| Total Comments | 392
|
1781 | 2173 |
| STHK | SAINTS | COMBINED | |
| Total Impressions (organic) | 113, 011 | 896, 634 | 109, 645 |
| Total Engagements | 4154 | 34102 | 38,256 |
| Total Retweets | 130 | 468 | 598 |
| Total Replies | 35 | 223 | 258 |
| Total Likes | 394 | 2041 | 2435 |
THE RESULT
DROP -IN ATTENDANCE
In just 90 minutes, the drop-in clinic saw 118 ticket holders receive a Covid-19 vaccination.
This outstanding attendance helped to make a significant contribution to closing the gap in vaccination uptake between the genders from 10% to approximately 6%, with 65.6% of men and 72% of women aged 30-34, and 75.5% of men and 81.2% of women in the 35-39 aged category, having had their COVID-19 jab.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Throughout the evening, ten social media posts were shared showing the progress of the drop-in in ‘real-time’, prompting positive comments from followers, including:
- Fabulous Everyone, St Helens residents are so lucky to have had the best vaccination service
- Absolutely fantastic, 1st class service in St Helens!
- Well done St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust. Great initiative
- Great, nice to see younger people being able to get jabbed. Xx
WHAT NEXT?
The success of the Match drop-in clinics has led the STHK team to offer more drop-in opportunities from the stadium to make it easier for a wider range of people to attend.