Get Askin’: a skin donation awareness campaign

Abstract

Get Askin’ is the first youth targeted campaign to raise awareness about skin donation, and ultimately aims to increase the number of skin donors in Singapore. The campaign is an initiative by four final year undergraduates from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University.

The use of donated skin provides the best results for severe skin burns, as treatment of critical burn wounds with donated skin can greatly improve recovery rates of patients. Despite public education efforts to raise awareness of skin donation, knowledge of what it entails remains low while misconceptions about its processes remain high. There are also some negative attitudes associated with skin donation as well as a lack of family discussion on preferences to donate skin. As a result, many Singaporeans are hesitant to sign up as skin donors. The Get Askin’ team developed a strategic communications campaign to tackle these issues. The team consulted industry experts and conducted primary research in the form of focus groups and surveys, in order to gain a better understanding of the barriers to skin donation. Campaign messaging techniques, strategies and tactics were then developed in order to effectively reach the target audience of youth aged 18-29. In collaboration with Singapore General Hospital’s Skin Bank Unit, the team launched its social media pages and a series of roadshows to encourage the target audience to be more open to skin donation.

A post-campaign assessment found that the campaign had a positive effect on the target audience’s knowledge and attitudes towards skin donation, as well as behaviour that could potentially increase Singapore’s rate of skin donation. This reaffirms the campaign’s current direction and indicates a possible continuation of its endeavours.