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Supporting the work of scientists working to improve eye health.
Strategic Planning
Each year of Hager Sharp’s contract with NEI began with a strategic planning meeting to determine the communications priorities for the year. We then outlined timelines, budgets and strategies for each priority.
For example, when we started the planning for the NEI for Kids website, we knew it needed to appeal to children, yet overall promotional strategies had to be geared toward educators and influencers. So, we developed a strategy based on insights from focus groups with children, in-depth interviews with teachers and health care providers, and an environmental scan. We determined that:
- Vision science and eye health were generally taught to upper-elementary and middle school children.
- Influencers choose resources based on whether they are age-appropriate, from a credible source, and relatable to the children.
- The website needed to be highly interactive—a potential challenge considering the requirements of NEI’s website platform.
When we mapped out the site we made sure to strike a balance between appealing to children in our target age range while incorporating the elements important to influencers. For example, to explain how the visual system works—a request from teachers—instead of a text-heavy web page, NEI opted to develop a short video featuring a plain-language voiceover and on-screen animations.
We also developed a promotion plan to reach influencers, which we did by cultivating partnerships with influencer organizations such as teaching and medical associations. Outreach to partners included developing and sharing a toolkit, as well as direct contact through phone calls and emails.
Creative Development
We produced a variety of health communication materials in support of multiple initiatives including:
- A dynamic 3-D video illustrating NEI’s Audacious Goals Initiative, aimed at pushing the boundaries of vision science and facilitating cross-disciplinary research. The process included sketching out cellular-level visuals side-by-side with NEI scientists.
- Dozens of web-based resources for Healthy Vision Month such as a toolkit, videos, fact sheets, infographics, and a variety of social media graphics. We also updated the Healthy Vision Month webpages annually.
- The award-winning “Ask a Scientist” video series, encompassing eight videos over three years. This series features NEI scientists answering vision questions posed by students. To bring the answers to life, we developed a compelling animation style, then filmed the scientists on a green screen background so in the final videos they could be seen interacting with the animation.
- All the materials for NEI’s kids’ program including a website and animated video of the visual system (for more details, please see the Website Development module below).
- Informational posters to promote the NEI Brown Bag Series.
- Updating NEI’s English- and Spanish-language What You Should Know guides.
- A series of four videos highlighting NEI-supported milestones in eye health for NEI’s 50th anniversary. For this series, together with NEI staff, we developed multiple iterations of video treatments, summarized each of the storylines, and outlined the creative approach. We then interviewed multiple scientists and VIPs to bring the stories to life, in their own words.
Website Development
The National Eye Institute’s children’s program aims to increase children’s knowledge of eye health while inspiring interest in vision and science. As part of its education program for children, NEI tasked Hager Sharp to develop an engaging and educational website for children, NEI for Kids, to make learning about vision and eye health and safety fun and interesting, and to get children excited about vision as a science. The goal was to develop an interactive, engaging, and educational website that key influencers—teachers, school health professionals, coaches, parents, and others who regularly interact with children—would want to share with upper-elementary and middle school children.
Guided by a strategy to create a website for children, but promote it among influencers, Hager Sharp took a two-pronged planning approach. The first step was the website: development, pretest, adjust, build. The second step was to develop a promotion plan to reach influencers. This would ensure that the site would actually make it into the hands of children. So, we did by cultivating partnerships with influencer organizations such as teaching and medical associations.
Partnerships
Partnerships were a key component of HVM, helping NEI spread the word about dilated eye exams and overall eye health and safety by sharing information through their networks, engaging in social media, creating blog posts, and more. Hager Sharp’s goal was to engage organizations from a variety of sectors—not just those focused in the eye care arena. We created a comprehensive list of possible partners with ideas for how they could get involved, then reached out accordingly. Over the years, we engaged partners like AARP, All About Vision, CVS (CVS reached out to NEI directly), LA Fitness, Public Library Association, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Academy of Optometry, BrightFocus Foundation, Prevent Blindness, and more.
Media Relations/Digital Content
Hager Sharp elevated NEI’s thought leadership profile through radio media tours, developing and placing matte articles, and pitching and securing media interviews for NEI spokespersons and leaders. We also developed new and engaging content for NEI’s social media channels, including Twitter (NEI and the National Eye Health Education Program), Facebook, and Pinterest.
Research & Evaluation
Formative Research: In January 2016, NEI engaged nine children ages 9 to 12 to participate in website pretesting to ensure that the website design, topics, and layout resonated with them before the launch. NEI developed a series of information-seeking activities for participants to complete. The insights helped NEI determine that the site is informative, relevant, easy-to-use, and appealing to children. When asked what the participants liked about the website, they said things like “animation makes it more fun and exciting to see and read the information.” When asked if they visit health or science websites in their free time, the majority of participants responded that they never or sometimes do. However, when asked if they would visit NEI’s site if a teacher suggested it, the majority responded they definitely would or probably would. Participants also reported that NEI for Kids was different from most websites they visited in school—in a good way.
