Initiative Description
Marilyn Hammond of UATP received a state grant to disseminate information on COVID-19. As part of that campaign, UATP developed radio messaging regarding communication platforms that were accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and shared those messages statewide.
Lessons Learned/Replication
This was a one-time initiative. If we had had more money we might have bought more radio time on more radio stations, but the messages did reach 386,000 people in the targeted demographic; people who we don't often reach. It also helped our name recognition. In addition, we sent out the same information on social media and in newsletters, though they reached a significantly smaller audience. We learned that the most effective ads are repeated many times. The typical ad purchase was for 20 spots per week. Radio advertising does have limitations when it comes to directing people to additional information, however we did see an increase in visits both to the website, and our website had an easy-to-find button directing people to more COVID information. We made sure we had a "marketing URL" that was easier to remember than the actual URL, and it still directed traffic to us. We tried to structure the message so that it offered useful information on its own, though, because the percentage of people who followed up and typed in our url was quite small--and the percentage that clicked on the COVID button was smaller still.