The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Foodborne Disease Epidemiology Team (FDET), in coordination with the Virginia Rapid Response Team (RRT) and Virginia Food Protection Task Force, partnered with Pandora Radio to develop a hepatitis A Pandora Radio Campaign that was broadcast in June of 2019. We developed three media images and a 30-second script which the Pandora Creative Team recorded. The recording and images were displayed when subscribers used or listened to Pandora Radio. The campaign had over 1 million impressions, or ad views, during the month. Concurrently, VDH recorded an increase of 198.6% unique views of the public facing VDH hepatitis A virus (HAV) landing page during the Pandora Radio Campaign. Overall, the hepatitis A Pandora Radio Campaign was a great success in highlighting interagency collaboration and increasing public awareness about HAV by providing education about how it is spread, signs and symptoms of infection, and how to reduce the transmission to the general public.

Pandora Radio is a music and podcast streaming internet radio service. A significant portion of Pandora listeners use the ad-supported version rather than pay for a subscription. The Virginia hepatitis A Pandora Radio Campaign utilized two different product methods, Audio Everywhere Ads and Mobile Display Ads, in order to increase the campaign’s effectiveness.

The Audio Everywhere product reached the target audience by weaving the recorded audio advertisement seamlessly into the listening experience between songs and podcasts. The Mobile Display product worked by displaying a media image linked to a webpage when a listener interacts with their device, i.e.; adjusting the volume or skipping a song. The Mobile Display is an attention getting image that draws listeners in and allows them to click on the advertisement for more information. There were over 1 million impressions, or ad views, to the campaign during the month of June. The Audio Everywhere Ad was played over 695,000 times and the Mobile Display Ad was displayed over 404,000 times.

The different media images that were used for the campaign are shown below. Figures 1 and 2 were displayed when the Audio Everywhere message played. Figure 3, with the poop emoji, was displayed using the Mobile Display option which displays when a listener interacts with their mobile device, such as when skipping a song or adjusting the volume.

If you would like more information regarding the campaign or have any questions, please contact foodborneepi@vdh.virginia.gov.

Submitted by :

MaryBeth DeMarco, OutbreakNet Enhanced Epidemiologist
Division of Surveillance and Investigation | Office of Epidemiology

Virginia Department of Health
109 Governor Street, 5th Floor, Richmond, VA 23219

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