Leveraging on Mobile Digital Platform to Increase the Reach of Mass Media Intervention :The Albishirin Ku! Story

Summary:

Delivering social and behavior change (SBC) content through a combination of traditional media and mobile platforms has the ability to increase the reach of messages among target audiences. Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria, a USAID-funded project, developed an integrated mass media campaign entitled, Albishirin Ku! (Glad Tidings! in Hausa) that uses radio and mobile channels. The campaign concept was developed using human-centered design (HCD) approach to address 17 priority behaviors, including maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition (MNCH+N), family planning and malaria, as well as social objectives, including gender. The radio program uses an innovative approach to storytelling. Monday thru Friday, a new 5-minute segment is aired throughout the day, with the story unfolding through a different lens each day: a dramatic cliffhanger, religious, family influencer, health provider, and a social perspective. The full 25-minute episode is aired over the weekends. These changing perspectives allows the radio program to tell an engaging story, appeal to diverse beneficiary population and their influencers while addressing the project's objectives. The radio program is made available on a toll-free mobile platform that allows callers to listen. The project analyses the content callers access, time they spend listening, and demographic information provided by the callers. This allows the program to understand callers' engagement and level of interest in the program. Within the first eight weeks of the launch of the Albishirin Ku! campaign, the mobile platform received over 200,000 calls from nearly 41,000 unique callers for over 900,000 minutes of call time.

Background/Objectives:

The Albishirin Ku! campaign adopts a life-stage approach to improve 17 priority health behaviors in addition to social norms around maternal, neonatal and child health and nutrition in 3 Northern Nigerian states- Bauchi, Kebbi, and Sokoto states, through an integrated mix of communication channels. The program idea was developed through an iterative process during a human-centered design. The innovative short format allows ease in access and use on mobile platforms. Even though the digital platform require audience to actively seek information, it equally affords them the opportunity to choose when and what segment(s) of the program to listen.

Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:

The Albishirin Ku! radio program idea was conceived through a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach. A pilot of the program was developed in Hausa language through an iterative process and pretested with the target audience. The concept was fine-tuned during a creative and technical workshop with implementing partners and stakeholders. The story follows the journey of a young married couple as they navigate their lives through an array of socio-cultural and religious beliefs and modern health practices. The first season consists of 13 episodes, with each episode addressing overarching health and social themes. Each episode is 25 minutes content- made up of five 5-minutes standalone segments. Leveraging on mobile platform to reach a broader audience, the content was designed for easy access and use.

Results/Lessons Learned:

The Albishirin Ku! radio drama and spots launched in August 2019 using a combination of traditional and mobile platform. Based on a survey conducted in late-September 2019, within a month, 50% of respondents had heard the Albishirin Ku! radio show and recalled the names of the main characters. Within the first eight weeks of the launch of the Albishirin Ku! campaign, the mobile platform received over 200,000 calls from nearly 41,000 unique callers for over 900,000 minutes of call time. On average, nearly 50% of callers each week are repeat callers from previous weeks. This demonstrates the potential of digital and mobile platforms to extend the reach of mass media messaging/campaign when combined with traditional media. More so, the digital platform provides an opportunity for instant and real-time analytics on exposure, audience engagement and demographics. This shows how mobile platforms can provide instant monitoring and feedback.

Discussion/Implications for the Field:

Digital and mobile offer an additional channel to increase audience exposure to messages. Results from Albishirin Ku! shows that the content and format are suitable and engaging for the medium. One key limitation to this platform was that content was only free to callers on the telecom's network. Unlike the traditional medium, digital platforms provide program makers the opportunity to access and monitor real-time analytics on exposure, engagement and demographics. Other programs implementing communication interventions could learn from the Albishirin Ku! model.

Abstract submitted by: 

Idi Nasiru

Justin  DeNormandie

Ian Tweedie

Shittu Abdu-Aguye

Chizoba Onyechi

Nii Lante Heward-Mills