In 2022, Region Halland introduced the possibility to contact primary care providers through a new chat feature. What previously had required a phone call or physical visit to a healthcare facility for medical help, was now possible through digital messaging. Region Halland wanted as many people as possible to know about the feature, and to start using it in the case of an illness. But we know that humans are creatures of habit who prefer to do what they have always done. This especially applies to older people.

The new chat function primarily helps to relieve the overwhelmed healthcare system. But it can also be convenient for patients who want to avoid a visit to a care facility, or don’t want to wait in a telephone queue. To communicate this, we realized that we needed to show the chat from the patients’ perspective – not the health care provider’s.

Our research showed that people who have used chat functions are more positive about digital care than people who have never tried it. So there was a barrier there that we needed to lower. We also know that people like to copy the behavior of their fellow human beings; when you see someone similar to you doing something, you feel more inclined to do the same thing.

Our insight work resulted in a campaign idea built on real cases: Real people in Halland trying the chat function for the first time. We met 83-year old Bodil, teenager Tilde and single-father of two, Johannes, and everyone had their own specific reasons why they liked the chat function. We spent two days in Halland capturing their experiences for films, articles, print ads, social media ads and outdoor ads. The targeted ads linked to a freshly-built campaign site where we aggregated the content. We also produced a postal sendout to the oldest target group.

All in all, the eight-week campaign was hard for those who live in Halland to miss. Since the start of the campaign, the region’s healthcare providers received approx. 10,000 visits to the campaign site, and the amount of incoming chat errands are steadily increasing. 

Reach: 1,5 million
Video views: 320 000 (133% above goal)
Click rate/frequency: 9.32% (Google’s average frequency for this industry is 3.27%)

“We are constantly gaining more chat-visitors each month. Although we have a ways to go before the new function has reached its full potential, all of us working here are proud and happy about the campaign.”

– Anna-Karin, Strategist & campaign responsible at Region Halland