Summary
Why Video is Social Marketing
Social marketing, in general, should be perceived as a set of marketing activities carried out by an organization and aimed at promoting socially significant ideas in society. The organization, in this case, can be any commercial company, voluntary funds, or even state enterprises. The selected YouTube video is an example of social marketing because it primarily encourages people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The pandemic has become a threat to public and personal health, so using the video as a public service announcement is aimed at a socially relevant goal, namely improving the public’s well-being.
Meanwhile, any social marketing has a personal purpose for the organization that is implementing it. In the case of the video, the NHS, a state-owned company, seeks to increase vaccination rates in order to achieve collective immunity meaningfully. While it seems like the NHS is interested in every life, and it probably is, the overall goal is direct to improve the health agenda of the community, the country, and the world’s population. Among other things, it addresses the organizational goals of the NHS, which are part of the working practices of a public company, namely increasing brand loyalty and spreading professional influence.
Finally, social marketing cannot be accomplished without the use of logo paraphernalia that increases recognition. Since one of the purposes of using such a tool is to promote the brand, logos prove to be an integral part of the content. The NHS uses the organization’s distinct logos at least three times in its video to demonstrate brand ownership. In addition, the name of the service is duplicated in the title of this video. Consequently, through the use of such attributes — even if not obviously — the company increases brand recognition and brand loyalty, which means it is an example of social value-based marketing.
Desired Implications
The creation of this video was dictated primarily by the current threat to public health from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is not the demonstration of the risks and horrors of infection that is the root cause, but a quite measurable call to action. Specifically, the NHS encourages audiences to get vaccinated, with two vaccines for “maximum protection” (NHS, 2021, 00:51). Consequently, the behavior encouraged by the creators of social advertising is to inject the vaccine to demonstrate social responsibility.
Notably, this type of marketing audience is not measured by specific demographic or geographic patterns. Although the NHS is a British public service, its impact is much broader and affects worldwide. People all over the planet thus become potential viewers of this propaganda. However, not every viewer is part of the target audience cluster since the vaccine injection is only relevant to those individuals who have not yet been vaccinated. In other words, the central core of this social marketing audience is people who have not been vaccinated.
It is essential to clarify that the target audience for the NHS ad is limited by several conditions. First, this video could only be viewed by individuals who had access to the Internet. Second, although not required, knowledge of the English language made it easier to understand the meaning embedded in the advertisement contextually. Third, the advertisement was produced and used in April 2021, when vaccination was still being introduced into society. Children, pregnant women, and people with chronic immune diseases were not recommended groups for vaccination at that time, so these populations were also not included in the target audience.
Reference
NHS. (2021). Every vaccine gives us hope | NHS. YouTube. Web.