Edmundas Jakilaitis on criticism of the social vaccination campaign: some speak, others do

– Who are the authors of the campaign that you started, did you create yourself or did you hire someone?

– We did not hire anything, but we had unpaid voluntary assistance and we are very grateful to the Owl Squad of the Rifle Syndicate for that. (He owns journalists Edmundas Jakilaitis, Tomas Balžekas, Darius Budzinauskas, Arūnas Kemežys and some other communication specialists – editor’s note).

– If this voluntary help has arisen, will other campaigns be developed on this basis?

– I would like to emphasize that there is no campaign here now: what started today is just an advertising part and that advertising part will be different in the future. As we have said, a campaign consists of many different elements, depending on the situation, its intensities, the audiences, the themes, the content and everything else changes. Until today, we have started with the advertising part and consequently, in the future, as necessary, we will start with other things. No, what has emerged today is certainly neither the beginning nor the end.

– Will there be a contest that has been talked about since December to possibly create a consortium in which both the media and the advertising and public relations agencies and the media participate?

– In an unequivocal way, where we see the need, that the aid should be used and that it should be used where we don’t need it. Now we are really very happy with the large number of online portals, and all the major radio and television stations, we have many people who have agreed to contribute and advertise this ad for free. And in the future, seeing the need, without a doubt we will start and we have already started some purchases, and we will do everything we need.

– You say that you are happy with the results of this free help, but communication professionals have not seen the joy, they say that such actions are unlikely to achieve anything. How do you react to this?

– We probably knew very clearly what we were focusing on. We conducted a survey of the population: the current advertising campaign focused on the results of the survey, what we saw, which groups in the vaccination phase should be promoted more in some way, that is, what measures are chosen according to what it affects groups, and we’ll probably look at the results to see if we were able to reach exactly the groups we wanted to reach. Probably something very important here in every information and communication campaign, that perception of who your audience is, who you are targeting and exactly what to focus on in what is relevant to that audience.

– But here is one of the main arguments of the critics is that these current clips are aimed at those who will be vaccinated in one way or another, and not those who oppose.

– Well, that is again what has to be achieved. When we did the public opinion poll, society was divided and in the poll we divided it into five parts. We have 64 percent. we have 16% of the public who say that they agree to vaccinate me or that they agree more. doubtful and 10 percent. those who say more than no, or certainly not. This orientation is probably all the time mainly for those who have doubts and to answer their questions. But once again, I want to emphasize that these commercials, which started today, do not intend to do so, and they are not the only medium, they are part of the entire campaign, which we have been constantly saying. If someone rates only these ads, they may have that impression. For my part, I repeat once again that this is only part of it.

– Communications, advertising agencies say that even if, for example, a tender is announced tomorrow, it would take about two months, including the preparation, a mandatory deadline to appeal the result of the tender, the preparation of the first steps. Isn’t it too late then?

– It probably depends on the type of competition that is announced, it is production, there are only aerial competitions, broadcasts. The shooters have promised us to keep saving: you are not the only one who has helped with this and will not keep saving. I think it is probably necessary to understand that this is a complex set of measures, and the same articles in the regional press, which are already being financed and distributed. This is probably a complex here, one should not focus on one type of purchase, it would be a creative purchase.

– In December, there was a proposal from the Seimas Budget and Finance Committee, which Mykolas Majauskas says he still supports, to organize a large-scale social campaign that would serve two purposes: to encourage people to get vaccinated and as a tool to help the media. of communication affected by the pandemic. You said you need a decision from the government, so what is your position? Is this idea abandoned if voluntary aid is approached?

– As I said, what has to be financed and bought is going to be bought. If you need one or the other or ether pranta for the importance of this process, and you dedicate your time, strength, resources, forces, then we can only bow our heads and say the greatest thanks to those people.

– You repeat that at some point there will be a decision, but still, when will it be, when will it be decided if a large-scale social campaign is necessary, what is it?

– As I mentioned, some competitions are already taking place, some will take place in the future. If the question arises as to when there will be a great common competition for everything, then we do not anticipate it.

(Read more about the ongoing vaccination campaign and why it is criticized by communication professionals.)

Edmundas Jakilaitis: I don’t know better communication specialists

Edmundas Jakilaitis, when asked why the Owl Brigade of the Rifle Union does the work of communication professionals, said that he did not know better communication professionals than in this group.

“This is the first part of the answer here, and basically the situation is that last year, with the first wave of the pandemic, our team created a complete Stay Home information campaign, as well as the Corona stop sign, the functionality, design and other things. So again, seeing that the entire public procurement system is quite inert and a large-scale public information campaign needs to be carried out, but probably not because public procurement is not working as it should, we decided to help, ”he said.

“The first thing in any communication campaign is to first have some data about the people, about the audiences to which it will be directed. Members of our team collaborated with SAM in developing a questionnaire for a sociological survey. This survey revealed which people use which communication channels, what opinion they value the most, what affects them, etc. After analyzing that data, we create specific products that target those target groups. The clips that are currently projected on commercial television and LRT are aimed at the older public, which is the one that most values ​​the opinion of specialists, that is why doctors and public health specialists speak in the clips, other actions are planned for others collectives ”, he explained. .

“Our team includes managers of public relations agencies, owners, planning managers of the largest advertising planning agencies, managers themselves, media owners, producers, people who have content production companies – we have absolutely all the best competencies We are not asking for anything, it is purely our civic initiative, which has not been carried out for the first time, because, as I mentioned, during the first pandemic we did exactly the same and all the media broadcast those clips that we created. ”said E. Jakilaitis .

On this occasion, many communication professionals do not skimp on criticizing the campaign, but E. Jakilaitis says it does not matter. “I don’t know who is criticizing what, I could, without any special effort, criticize any commercial, any clip, if I wanted and had the same objective as most of the members of our Rifle Squad. That is critical, some do it, others speak ”, he commented.

Although other communication professionals have also offered to contribute publicly, E. Jakilaitis stated that he does not see the need to do so. “We have enough people, we are a community that has known each other for a long time, we have people of absolutely all skills. The slogan “Shoulder for Freedom” was created by the best-known creative agency Critical, my head, the best, is led by Paulius Budrikis, a renowned designer and creator who is also a member of our team. He created many alternative things, of which the ministry chose this one, ”said E. Jakilaitis.

“One more thing, even though we act for free, our principles are no different than if someone had paid a huge amount of money for it. Everything is done professionally, sociologically, targeting the target audience and what is happening now is part of a campaign focused on older audiences that, according to sociological research, value more the opinions of professionals about what professionals speak. Those operating principles are no different than any well-known brand would have commissioned the campaign, ”he added.

Jūratė Žuolytė

Culture editor M360 and DELFI