The New South Wales Ministry of Health launched a creative interactive online health campaign to help educate 18- to 24-year-olds about the risks of contracting the hepatitis C virus (HCV), Bizcommunity.com reports.
The Australian government reached out to local ad agency Mediacom with a budget of just $200,000 to get the word out to the notoriously hard-to-reach group. Up for the challenge, the agency created a huge online social media campaign and website that reached young people in the heat of the moment, when they are most at risk of contracting the virus.
Researchers decided to use an “immersive virtual party” to symbolically put young people in harm’s way while surfing the web. The site personalizes the users’ party experience by linking up with Facebook and putting their friends in the scene with them.
Next, the interactive program allows users to scope out the party, where they walk through a variety of hep-C relevant scenes—including shared razors and home tattoos and culminating with a shared needle in a heated, bedroom moment.
Before seeing the government media campaign, only about 5 percent of Australian youth said they saw themselves at any risk for contracting hep C. After completing the virtual party, 27 percent agreed with the statement, “Hepatitis C is relevant to me.”
To check out the virtual party click here.
For more information about NSW’s campaign, click here.
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