Background
In the very early days of the coronavirus, several months before any known treatments or vaccines, we (Wondros) were tasked with developing public service announcements on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). HHS was asking the American public who contracted the virus to donate their plasma once they recovered. There was a belief at this time that covid plasma could potentially help those who recently became infected heal faster.
This was a cross functional effort that required several landing pages for several major US hubs, community engagement, new creative development, video contents, copywriting and social media assets. This required the coordination of multiple agencies and members of HHS.
Project Goals
The overall goal of course was to educate and make the American public aware that the US government was making efforts to immediately respond to the coronavirus outbreak. The call to action was to donate your plasma and get people to locations that supplied this plasma treatment. We also needed to measure campaign efforts without monitoring any one persons’ protected health information. We had several deliverables, including over 30 landing pages, weekly and monthly reports, a robust end of year report, analytics, numerous video PSAs, social media posts and traditional media.
The Fight Is In Us landing page
Challenges / Lessons Learned
Speed was the biggest challenge, immediately followed by finding factual information about a new and terrifying pandemic. Everyday during this period, new information came out and had to be vetted, finding reliable sources was crucial and speaking to an audience of Americans that were becoming further divided was challenging.
Creating schedules for a train that has already left the station seems impossible but we did it. Developing a new analytics team, sourcing data and determining what is valuable to report. Creating custom data reporting videos, scripts and graphics bi-weekly and monthly. Recruiting and developing new talent while moving at a breakneck pace.
Lastly, on a personal note, while all the above was happening, I was completing my MBA. This singular experience supercharged my skills to be nimble and exude grace under extreme pressure.
Retrospective
I have a lot of pride when it comes to the work done on this project, the level of learnings and partnership that occurred is nothing short of phenomenal. I learned how to be much more agile, identify and focus on the highest priority work, strengthened my problem solving skills and removed obstacles for my team. I hope we contributed to saving lives and provided comfort to millions while we lived in fear for so long.
I do not think there is anything that I would have done differently, the circumstances were what they were and we did our absolute best.
