Vaccination incentives: suggestions for good public policy marketing

Another year of partially massive Corona restrictions for the economy and personal life is coming to an end.  The frustration is now palpable everywhere, as we have been in what feels like an endless loop for almost two years. One of the most effective measures against the Corona pandemic clearly is the vaccination, all serious experts agree on that. But the German-speaking countries, and especially the South, are rather reluctant when it comes to their own vaccination. Our experts from the fields of communication, behavioral economics and virology have concrete approaches to solving this problem.

WORDUP PR CEO Achim von Michel recently referred to the positive example set by Vienna in an interview with the marketing trade magazine ONEtoONE. Here, all unvaccinated people are invited by official letter to their fixed vaccination appointment, similar to the process in Spain and Portugal. So instead of making a more or less “wishy-washy” “vaccination offer,” the Viennese receive a clear invitation with a specific date. In addition, Austria has had a digital vaccination register since the beginning of the year. Involving the military, in Italy and Portugal for example through highly decorated generals at the head of crisis teams, also seems to have contributed a lot to the positive image of vaccination campaigns, so much so that Germany is now following suit: Major General Carsten Breuer is taking on the task in this country.

According to Marcus Schreiber, CEO of our client TWS Partners, the European market leader for game theory and behavioral economics based in Munich, incentive strategies in particular are a suitable option to further increase the vaccination rate noticeably in Germany as well. His trenchant statements on what is happening in intensive care units have made big waves and have been picked up by numerous leading German media (SZ, WELT, RND, FR, Münchner Merkur, FOCUS and ZDF Morgenmagazin).

Even before the start of the fourth wave, Schreiber had become actively involved in the vaccination discussion, giving a double interview with virologist Melanie Brinkmann in SPIEGEL (40/2021) at the beginning of October. The solutions discussed in the interview are still highly relevant today. The fact that the number of vaccinations must increase is also confirmed by Professor Dr. Ulrike Protzer, virologist and member of Markus Söder’s expert council. Already at the beginning of the pandemic in spring 2020, she had pointed out the dangers of Sars-Cov-2 for the economy in a Zoom interview with Achim von Michel. Professor Monika Schnitzer, a member of the German government’s Council of Economic Experts, also faced specific questions from SMEs in the Zoom interview in 2020.

Needless to say, all employees at WORDUP PR are vaccinated – for their own health and for the protection of the general public!