Target, Test, Iterate, Rinse, Repeat! Using Iterative Design Process in Health Communication Science

Background: The presentation will show how CDC’s HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention campaign utilized the iterative design process to refine messages and ads to resonate with parents and drive traffic to the CDC’s HPV website. 

Program background: Iterative design is a cyclical process of refining a product based on feedback and evaluation from the target audience. While commonly used in the private sector, it is less common in public health communication research. CDC launched a consumer-focused outreach, promoting messages that normalize HPV vaccine and amplify the message that HPV vaccination is cancer prevention. The primary tactic of consumer outreach was paid digital or social media—which provided guaranteed measurability and the greatest opportunity for targeting—to inundate the audience with messaging that addressed parental concerns. 

Evaluation Methods and Results: The campaign conducted A-B testing of creative components of digital ads to understand which messages and visuals resonated best with the target audience, as well as which digital ad publishers were most effective in driving parents to the CDC website visitors. Tracking codes were used to understand visitor behavior on the website, which enabled optimization of the ad components, the publisher, and the landing page for the website. Campaign ads ran from November 2015–July 2016. The heaviest placement occurred April–July 2016 to capitalize on the back-to-school season, amplifying the message reach at the time most preteens are receiving other recommended vaccines, often required for school entry.

Conclusions: The digital outreach exceeded consumer benchmarks. Creative optimizations enabled the campaign to discontinue under-performing ads and specific ad publishers. Third-party data provided insights regarding parent behavior after seeing digital ads, demonstrating that these efforts helped CDC work towards its goal of increasing awareness among parents of HPV vaccination’s role in cancer prevention to increase vaccine uptake at the recommended ages of 11–12. 

Implications for research and/or practice: The presentation will offer actionable insights for organizations considering paid media buys to reach parents, regardless of size of campaign.