Promoting Flu Vaccination at the Workplace (Employer Flu Toolkit) & Promoting Flu Vaccination for Caregivers of Older Adults (Caregiver Flu Toolkit)
Project Mission
To transform the American Lung Association’s “Fend Off Flu” campaign into a fully branded, custom toolkit that is user-friendly, informative, and approachable.
Business Statement
The American Lung Association (ALA) saves lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. ALA was founded over 115 years ago by a group of volunteers dedicated to ending the lung health threat at the time: tuberculosis.
Influenza or the seasonal flu is a respiratory infection caused by viruses. The flu virus passes through the air and enters your body through your nose or mouth. It can also be acquired from contaminated surfaces. Between 5 percent and 20 percent of people in the United States get the flu each year. It can cause mild to severe illness and may lead to hospitalization or death in some cases. Symptoms of the flu are like those of the common cold, but they last longer and tend to be worse.
National vaccination initiatives in the United States support the critical work of achieving health equity for all Americans. While the Fend off Flu guide is not intended to be a persuasive tool, it has been developed to provide employers, employees, and caregivers with the information they need to explore concerns, answer questions, and start a conversation about general immunization and the flu vaccine (lung.org).
The Process
The project manager of the ALA contract subcontracted with Vexing Media as he had worked with Vexing Media on previous contracts. The project manager knew that Vexing Media has the content development and design experience to help ALA effectively and efficiently develop an online publication that will resonate well with the targeted audience. The project manager had a staff content writer for the employer toolkit but needed Vexing Media to provide a content writer for the caregiver toolkit.
Vexing Media had past performance and expertise in developing health-related communication materials. To ensure that the content was developed in plain language concerning scientific data and information about the flu vaccines available, Vexing Media contracted one of its professional writer consultants with a background in health sciences for the caregiver toolkit. Additionally, Vexing Media’s graphic designer and the writer recently completed the American Indian/Alaska Native COVID-19 vaccine toolkit for ALA (March 2021).
The project team included the project management team (project manager and project coordinator/editor) and Vexing Media’s team, which comprised the team manager (lead and primary correspondent with the project manager), graphic designer, and the contracted content writer/copy editor.
The project manager and the project coordinator/editor developed the audience analysis and conceptualized the outline for toolkits and promotional materials. They shared the documents with the team manager, graphic designer, and content writer for review and feedback. The project coordinator/editor also developed a style guide based on ALA’s style preferences.
For the Fend off Flu, Employer Flu Toolkit: Promoting Flu Vaccination at the Workplace, the team lead and graphic designer worked with the project manager and his team to produce a 45-page toolkit that included 26 pages of promotional materials (e.g., flyers, posters, charts, fact sheets, stickers, and social media examples). The project coordinator/editor researched and provided the cited references for the in-house content writer.
The Fend off Flu, Caregiver Flu Toolkit: Promoting Flu Vaccination for Caregivers of Older Adults, the team lead, graphic designer, and the content writer worked with the project manager and his team to produce a 43-page toolkit that included 18 pages of promotional materials (e.g., flyers, posters, charts, factsheets, and facility email examples).
Once the writing was completed, the content draft was shared with the Vexing Media and project management teams. A meeting with the ALA was held to discuss the content, identify gaps, and ascertain the images and graphics in the toolkit that complemented the narrative.
The writer revised the content and the cited sources per the feedback and comments received from the ALA and project management team and then sent the final content to the graphic designer.
The graphic designer created the color scheme and located photos and images that harmonized with the words chosen by the writer, and laid out the toolkit. The graphic designer sent the mock-up to the writer for copy-editing and then revised it accordingly. When the mock-up draft was revised, he sent it to the team manager, who forwarded it to the project manager to share with ALA. The review meeting had a few changes to make: the ALA narrative that was in the process of modification. The final online publication was completed on time and posted to the ALA website on November 11, 2021.
The Results
Vexing Media’s team collaborated with the primary contractor in producing an audience-driven and scientific-based publication. We are pleased that the Fend off Flu series includes the Workplace and Caregiver toolkits that are user-friendly.
“The American Lung Association’s Fend off Flu toolkits are guides for employers to educate their workforce and for caregivers for older adults on seasonal influenza (the flu) and the importance of vaccination.” Both are available in English and Spanish.
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/influenza/fend-off-flu




What's Next
We view collaboration among all team players as a critical element for our clients and our company’s success. We have been thankful to have worked with the ALA contract.
We look forward to additional work in the public health arena. We acknowledge the value of using accessible and clear information about any healthcare issue and strive to use the most current and up-to-date research and data available.
See other organizations we have worked with here and contact us for a free consultation!