Social Marketing in Health Emergencies: Content analysis of Campaigns from Public Sector and Nonprofit Organizations

Communication campaigns to encourage individuals to adopt social norms became a priority in the public sector due to the spread of COVID-19. For this, a content analysis of campaigns issued in English and Spanish for COVID-19 was carried out using Google as a search platform. Fifty-two campaigns launched in 17 countries throughout the year 2020 were analyzed, with a total sample of 504 messages. Research identified that the visibility of the desired behavior was the mechanism increasingly used by the different institutions to inform and persuade the acceptance of new social norms. The campaigns promoted awareness of the virus (descriptive social norms to follow), then they appealed to self-responsibility for contagion, and finally being able to deal with the frustration of confinement. It was identified that most campaigns were merely informative, and that testimony or cultural images were the styles least used.