MILLION DOLLAR VAX

Driving up Australia’s vaccination rate.

THE

BRIEF

What bigger challenge than getting an entire population vaccinated against COVID-19? That’s what Million Dollar Vax was trying to solve and it needed to happen in just one month.

A group of Australian entrepreneurs and philanthropists created the Million Dollar Vax to safely accelerate Australia’s vaccination rate to help protect the population from COVID-19.

The campaign promised $1 million to one lucky vaccinated winner and daily cash prizes to other entrants. All you had to do was get the jab.

The team came to Bastion Amplify to spread the word.

THE

APPROACH

To maximise the launch moment, we worked in conjunction with News Corp to offer the exclusive story that was syndicated across all their mastheads prior to a wider media campaign kicking off. Knowing that vaccinations are a contentious topic, this allowed us to lead the direction of the story and ensure all key messages were delivered to avoid any skepticism and validate the promotion.

We then conducted a national media blitz with Million Dollar Vax Alliance chair, Craig Winkler, acting as a spokesperson across dozens of media opportunities including appearances on our highest rating breakfast shows Sunrise, Today and all major TV and radio news programs.

In order to continue the momentum throughout the month, we developed milestone news stories based on entry data and entries received, we also worked closely with sporting ambassadors such as Bachar Houli and Luke Shuey to help encourage vaccination in several lower vax states via their social media platforms.   

We also strategically used social media, ambassadors, prize winners and social influencers in regions of Australia with low vaccination rates to boost inoculation levels.

In addition, Bastion also established and led the content creation and community management for the Million Dollar Vax social media platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram. This served to compliment the positive media relations strategy, but also respond and react to questions regarding entry upload from participants and to mitigate any potential negativity towards the campaign.

THE

RESULT

The campaign was a huge success, with over 2.75 million entries – the most of any competition in Australian history. 

Our reach was more than 80 million, meaning pretty much every Australian would have seen our message multiple times.

This was achieved through an enormous 735 media clips.

The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews commented on the campaign during one of his daily press conferences. The Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt did the same too.

Most importantly, today Australia is one of the highest vaccinated nations in the world. Weeks after the campaign launched, Victoria ended its lockdown ahead of schedule, citing the uptick in the vaccination rate as key.