Close-up of a syringe needle piercing a glass vial's stopper against a teal background with a digital wave mesh
Submitted by Coegi

Moderna's Influencer Strategy: Redefining Healthcare Marketing Success

Influencer Marketing

Coegi built a 150 creator partner community for Moderna's Spikevax vaccine, work the agency reports helped drive nearly 24% of all US vaccine conversions.

24%share of US vaccine conversions
503Mimpressions, organic and paid
503Mattention score benchmark exceeded
484%engagement rate goal exceeded

Case in 60 seconds

By 2023 COVID fatigue had left many people resistant to pandemic messaging while a well funded rival competed in the same space, so Moderna needed to promote Spikevax and raise vaccination rates among high-risk individuals.

The campaign appears to turn on trust sitting with communities rather than institutions, because audiences weary of pandemic talk would hear a vaccine message from a member of their community sooner than from a brand.

Coegi positioned Spikevax as a routine choice in preventive healthcare carried by community members rather than by promotional messaging, casting creators who belonged to the communities the brand wanted to reach.

Coegi and the client identified 150 creators, each representing one of the persona communities defined for the brand, and those collaborations established the #SpikevaxPartner Community of nano and micro-influencers. The strongest content was amplified on paid media channels to extend the Spikevax messaging, while Attention Unit Scoring, script lift analysis and audience emotional response analysis supported real-time optimization.

Coegi reports the community helped drive nearly 24% of all US vaccine conversions and over 503 million impressions across organic and paid channels that surpassed the attention score benchmark by 9%. The agency also reports engagement rate goals surpassed by 484%, nearly 72,000 Spikevax page visits and market share increasing 23% YoY, which the page presents as the business impact of the work.

Strategy Breakdown

People weary of and resistant to pandemic-related discussions, reached through Moderna's distinct micro-communities and the purposeful persona communities the agency defined, with particular weight on high-risk individuals whose vaccination rates the brand sought to lift.
Widespread COVID fatigue had turned pandemic-related discussion into something audiences avoided, so a vaccine brand that still needed to talk about COVID-19 had to find a register that did not read as more of what people were already tuning out.
Healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing depends on authenticity and relevance, and Moderna was also up against a well funded rival, so promotional messaging alone risked being both distrusted and outspent.
Spikevax was positioned as a routine choice in preventive healthcare rather than as a pandemic response, which moves the brand from emergency measure to standing habit and gives community members something ordinary to talk about.
Based on the available evidence the work assumes a message lands on the strength of who carries it, so creators were treated as vital members of their communities rather than as voices for hire, and content was measured on attention lift and emotional response rather than on delivery alone.

Creative & Execution System

Partners

  • Coegi

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Share of US Vaccine ConversionsHelping drive nearly 24% of all US vaccine conversions
Impressions, Organic and PaidDelivering over 503 million impressions across organic and paid channels that surpassed the attention score benchmark by 9%
Attention Score Benchmark ExceededDelivering over 503 million impressions across organic and paid channels that surpassed the attention score benchmark by 9%
Engagement Rate Goal ExceededSurpassing engagement rate goals by 484% while also driving nearly 72,000 Spikevax page visits
Spikevax Page VisitsSurpassing engagement rate goals by 484% while also driving nearly 72,000 Spikevax page visits
Market Share Increase YoYAnd most notably, driving strong business impact with Spikevax's market share increasing 23% YoY
Creators in the CommunityOur agency team worked closely with the client to identify the right mix of 150 creators, each representing one of our purposeful persona communities.

Why Coegi's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Casting creators for membership of a community rather than for follower scale gives a regulated brand a messenger its audience already trusts, which appears to be how 150 nano and micro-influencers carried a vaccine message through message fatigue.

  2. 2

    Framing a product as a routine preventive choice rather than as a response to a crisis suggests a way through fatigue, because routine positioning asks the audience for a habit rather than for renewed attention to a tired subject.

  3. 3

    Measuring attention lift and emotional response alongside platform counts reads as a check on whether creator content was absorbed, which matters more where the objective is a behaviour such as vaccination than where it is reach.

  4. 4

    Amplifying the strongest creator content on paid media extends a message without recasting it, so the credibility built by a community messenger travels into bought placement rather than being replaced there by brand voice.

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