The #DisruptFearWithFacts Campaign

How we curbed #fakenews on COVID-19 to boost digital engagement by 120,000%

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Malaysian government was one of the earlier adopters of a Movement Control Order (partial lockdown). This sparked an initial flurry of panic among Malaysians – mostly enabled by the dissemination and sharing of fake news and negative coverage. COMMUNICATE by PEMANDU wanted to change the conversation through the #DisruptFearWithFacts campaign that debunked the rampant fake news as well as spread positivity through practical guides for both families and business to make the most out of this new way of living.

The Brief

We wanted to change the conversation on COVID-19 from fear and misinformation to one of hope and factualness through engaging digital content. In doing so, the challenge to the team was to make sure that both the content and marketing efforts would drive quantifiable engagement on COMMUNICATE’s digital platforms.

Our Approach

Changing the conversation.

With most Malaysians in the non-essential line of work staying at home, there was a captive audience on the digital space for us to spread the message towards. Our approach focused on the following content pillars:

01 Daily positive news updates.

02 Thought leadership articles on brand marketing amid the crisis.

03 Creative engagement content anchored on practical guides for living / working amid the lockdown.

04 Weekly roundup of fake news / misinformation.

Applying creative magic to get attention.

In a sea of clutter, simplicity is king. We developed a cohesive, copy-driven design system to hold all our content together for this campaign. This strenthened our case for wanting to provide clarity, practically as well as a good measure of fun to Malaysians under the Movement Control Order.

In order to establish familiarity with our different content segments, each had its own design language and visual treatment while ensuring a cohesive look throughout.

Amplifying the message of our content to reach a wider audience.

Effective promotion of our content was essential to spur bigger awareness and attract a wider audience to our website and social media pages. We ran ads to push our content to relevant target audiences throughout the campaign period.

Outcome

124,446%

increase in engagement across
social media platforms.

130%

increase in traffic to
COMMUNICATE’s website.