Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia
A co-designed vaccination campaign, built on trust
The Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia (AHCSA) is the peak body for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in the state - supporting the delivery of culturally safe primary health care to Aboriginal communities across metropolitan, regional and remote South Australia.
With funding secured, AHCSA set out to lift vaccination rates among Aboriginal South Australians as close to 100 per cent as possible. This meant focusing on the relatively small percentage of people who are vaccine-hesitant, rather than the minority of those who are anti-vaccination.
In order to shift attitudes among this group, AHCSA needed to co-design a campaign that would build trust among community, without technical or fear-based messaging, that would be adaptable enough to be rolled out across multiple resources by member health services.
Approach
Fuller began with desktop research and two facilitated workshops - one with AHCSA’s project team to define the goal and success measures, and one with the Aboriginal Cultural Advisory Committee (ACAC) to hear directly from community about barriers, language and cultural safety.
From these conversations we were able to see the problem more clearly - hesitancy wasn’t a knowledge gap that better information could close; it was a trust gap, rooted in a long history of institutional mistreatment of Aboriginal people by non-Aboriginal institutions.
Insight
It can take a lot of courage to ask questions about our health - particularly when we don't trust the institutions that are meant to protect us.
The workshops also revealed what the campaign should avoid: no myth-busting, no needles, no fear, and no over-reliance on community language that had already been worn thin by other campaigns.
Strategy
Following an internal creative workshop with AHCSA and ACAC members, Fuller refined its early concepts through a collaborative co-design process.
This led to the development of an overarching campaign platform, ‘That’s solid’. Using colloquial language, the platform recognises people for the questions they ask, as much as the actions they take.
Within community, ‘solid’ is a strong affirmation – a stamp of approval for doing something good for yourself and your people. Applied to vaccination, it transforms a private, sometimes embarrassing decision into a visible act of community strength.
‘Asking your Aboriginal Health Provider about vaccinations? That’s solid.’
To ensure the language resonated with younger Aboriginal audiences, AHCSA tested the concept through a survey of younger Aboriginal representatives. The platform was then finalised, with flexibility built in to support adaptation across member services.
Visual Identity
Bringing community to the centre of the campaign, the art direction celebrates local Aboriginal leaders, families and individuals as campaign heroes.
Captured by Fuller in partnership with Stepney Studios, these powerful portraits were paired with a warm, conversational headline typeface and AHCSA’s yellow, earth and ink palette.
The result is a distinct and approachable visual identity that celebrates community strength and gives member services the flexibility to make the campaign their own.
