The vibrant posters for Our Business will be seen around Australia
Using help from the country's most followed social media influencers, Our Business aims to increase conversation about HPV vaccination in Community, through a campaign that is the first of its kind.
As part of the four-year National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) 2022 Ideas Grant, Associate Professor Natalie Strobel of Edith Cowan University (ECU) is set to launch the TikTok-centric Our Business campaign - alongside Australia's most respected Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander TikTok personalities.
With consultation from triple j's Nooky, influencers including Meissa Mason, Outback Tom from the ABC and Ian Zaro from Black Comedy have participated in making short form videos, images and messaging set to be released throughout the 2024 school year.
The campaign branding and strategy itself combined the efforts of ECU's Professor Dan McAullay and experts from Curtin University, Aboriginal Health Council of WA, Government of Western Australia North Metropolitan Health Service, and a team of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children - who gave the final approval on messaging, artwork and how the campaign should look and feel.
With messaging centred on HPV vaccination, Our Business is all about Community sharing and swapping information about HPV—a common sexually transmitted infection that produces no symptoms and is the biggest risk factor for cervical cancer, among other cancers.
While the Australian designed vaccination has been widely regarded by the World Health Organisation and is set to make the nation 'cervical cancer free' by 2030 - data shows that many young Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander People do not receive their HPV vaccine, resulting in missed opportunities to be protected from HPV-related cancers.
As the vaccination is targeted to young people aged 12-25 years old Associate Professor Strobel and Professor McAullay discovered this age group would be a good demographic to target with an online social media campaign.
Associate Professor Strobel said research suggested the starting point for this fully digital campaign should be video sharing app TikTok - where First Nations creators have built a strong, culturally aware community.
"We came up with this idea during Covid after an article about influencer culture appeared in Time magazine," she said.
"We realised we could use the influence content creators have as the basis for the project, but we wanted to be more creative.
"We think Our Business is an innovative health promotion campaign and we are excited to see it role out."
The $974K grant awarded will facilitate one of the first ever health promotion campaigns of its kind in Australia.
Associate Professor Strobel said while 2023 was dedicated to understanding what kids and parents know about HPV and how they use social media, along with creating the Our Business brand, 2024 would see content and videos rolled out by the country's most awarded influencers as part of the four-year strategy.
"The calibre of creators we have on board is phenomenal," she said.
"Having a brand that looks good and makes sense helped get the best creators on board - the range of professional backgrounds is also impressive – ARIA nominated singers, fitness gurus, WAFL players, TikTok viral journalists and actors."
Next is to see whether the Our Business brand strategy works, looking at WA vaccination rates to measure campaign success.
"We want Our Business to be sustainable for the next five years. Health promotion campaigns tend to come and go - we want long term results," Associate Professor Strobel said.
"We looked into iconic campaigns like 'Life Be In It' and 'Slip Slop Slap' to help understand how Our Business can evolve.
"To be effective we need to figure out how we can do this based on other industries, like fashion - which exist in a constant state of reinvention.
"Healthcare is something that affects all of us - so we need to put the same effort into keeping the conversation interesting and evolving. Our Business aims to do just that.”
Our Business - a program to boost human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates, using the help of social media, is one of five exceptional Indigenous health research projects funded through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) 2022 Ideas Grant scheme.
Find Our Business on: Instagram @obhpv | TikTok @OBHPV | Facebook Our Business HPV | Linktree linktr.ee/obhpv
