UNICEF Papua New Guinea engaged Colony to develop a behaviour change campaign that would bring awareness and action for Measles, Rubella, Polio, and Vitamin A immunisation activity across the country.

The campaign was intended to arrest the nation’s continuing decline in early childhood vaccination rates which had been falling steadily since the 1980s.

Research showed that a large proportion of Papua New Guineans believed that vaccination was a treatment for illness. There was low awareness of the fact that vaccines protected against the spread of diseases, rather than “something to take after getting sick”.

This research gave us insight that allowed us to create an awareness campaign, focused on educating the people of Papua New Guinea about herd immunity, community protection and the importance of male role models in the vaccination process.

We knew that the key to this campaign revolved around education and raising awareness of the benefits of vaccination and how they work. To do this, we took the communication back to basics with the positioning – “Immunization saves lives.”

Our team developed a suite of illustrated characters and landscapes representing every layer of PNG community life. These characters and locations were animated to deliver key information in a simple, visually compelling way. We also developed an informational jingle with the help of popular local Justine Morgan.

Traditional patterns formed a key part of the campaign graphics. The creative executions positively portrayed the role of men as protectors and willing participants in healthcare education.

This campaign successfully supported UNICEF PNG’s Measles, Rubella and Vitamin A vaccination initiative and provided strong foundations for the subsequent Childhood Vaccination campaign that was completed later in 2024. The case study for Childhood Vaccination will be posted on this site soon.