Buruli Ulcer is endermic in Sub- Sahara
with West Africa recording the most cases. Buruli Ulcer is a chronic
debilitating skin and soft tissue infections that can lead to permanent
disfigurement and disability. It is caused by mycobacterium Ulcerans bacterium.
It prevalence in Ghana began in 1971 with Ga west recording the most cases.
Communities in the Ga West municipal assembly with this disease includes
Amasaman, Okushiebiade and Kutunse. Targeting Okushiebiade, we gathered that
inhabitants in this community have traced the case of the disease to spiritual
forces. Okushiebiade community is a Ga dominated community made up of ten
thousand inhabitants. Their occupation is farming and are highly exposed to the
Buruli Ulcer disease due to lack of portable water in the area.
As a result, victims are compelled to
visit and seek spiritual treatment rather than medical.
However, our mission and focus is to
create awareness, change perception and entreat infected persons to seek early
medical treatment in a period of one year.
Below is a comprehensive advertising plan
on the disease for the people of Okushiebiade over a period of one year.
Situational Analysis of Buruli
Ulcer in Ghana
Through the calendar year of 2015,
Amasaman District recorded the highest number of Buruli ulcer cases in Ghana.
Sensitisation
Background of Buruli Ulcer
In 2014, Ministry of Health records
pointed to the fact that Ga West district record the highest number of cases,
averaging to two cases per month. In this regard, the Government chose the
Amansaman District hospital as center for free treatment of Buruli Ulcer. The
Ghana Health Service used community health services to medically examine and
treat some victims advising them on the need for medical treatment.
It is worthy to note that children under
(15) fifteen years are most vulnerable: on a positive side, 80% of cases can be
managed using a combination of anti-biotics.
In the previous campaign we embarked on,
the effectiveness of the campaign against the disease didn’t not achieve much
due to lack of funds to disseminate the message to the people. We have however
restrategised and have come up with a stronger message which will be properly
budgeted and funded by a non-governmental organization and World Health
Organisation.
Marketing
Objectives / Strategy
Sensitisation
Objective
To increase
awareness by 50% among natives between the ages of 15- 40 years in Okushiebiade
over a one year from November 2016 to November 2017.
Budget
An amount of GHS 50,000.00 will be
used for this campaign.
Category
Competitive Analysis
·
Ghana Health Services: GHS is a government
institution funded to treat the sickness. Over the years the institute used
more scientific words to communicate to the people hence the message didn’t
gets to the natives. The institute used flyers and broadcast media to campaign.
However, it is significant to note that 70% campaign budget was geared towards
broadcast precisely television advertising while 10% was directed to the
production of awareness flyers and 30% health scanning. This yielded little
since the natives with their occupation had little time to watch television,
this made it impossible for them to get the message. Personnels employed to
distribute the flyers couldn’t get the message to the indigenes due to their
deplorable roads to the community.
Advertising Objectives
Increase
awareness and change perception on the causes of Buruli Ulcer from an initial
target of 10%, with the goal of achieving 50% awareness over a period of twelve
months.
Media Objectives
To use broadcast and print media to increase
awareness and change perception on Buruli Ulcer as a spiritual phenomenon.
And the need to use potable water for
human consumption and household activities and seek medical treatments. To which
we hope to achieve by
1. Reaching
40% of children and women who are the most vulnerable to this disease.
2. Increasing
awareness by using broadcast and print media in the community over a year.
Media
Strategies
The campaign will be done over a period of
12 months through the effective use of both above the line and below the line
advertising mediums.
We will also be using television, radio,
flyers, posters, banners and information centers to create awareness.
Broadcast
Radio
As the primary medium for the
sensitisation campaign, radio has local coverage availability, high frequency,
reaches special kinds of target audiences and supporting medium.
The selected radio stations are;
Obonu
Fm: It’s
a local radio station that airs in ga and Okushiebiade is a ga community.
Therefore, the message will reach most of the natives in Okushiebiade.
Peace
Fm: it
is also a local radio but airs in twi. This will help carry the message to
natives of Okushiebiade who are not Gas.
Adom
Fm; it
is a local radio which also airs in twi and can also get the message to the
ethnic groups in Okushiebiade since twi is mostly understood by many ethnic
groups.
Television
Obonu
TV:
It is a local television station which airs in Ga and would reach a large
number of people in that community.
UTV: It
is another local television station that has the highest National Reach and
airs in the Akan language. It will reach the natives of Okushiebiade because of
the mixture of ethnic groups though the community is highly dominated by Gas.
TV3:
It was selected because it airs a lot of series and African movies, hence the
campaign will be scheduled during those African movies and series to reach the
target audience.
GhOne:
It airs a lot of entertainment programmes therefore, a lot of youth in that
community will available to watch them. The campaign will be scheduled for prime
time, between 7:30pm – 8:30pm, where most of the youth will be home watching
programmes.
Outdoor
As another primary medium to use for the
campaign, a combination of posters and bill boards will be used to create the
awareness that Buruli ulcer is a disease and not spiritual.
Also, posters, banners, billboards, etc.
under outdoor has broader reach and multiple exposure which will help change
the perception of Buruli ulcer being spiritual. So it will be designed using
simple words and striking images to create awareness and change perception.
Summary
Radio was chosen because, Okushiebiade is
a farming community and they mostly listen to radio whenever they go farming.
Television is also for visual mass awareness and visibility, though it is a
very expensive medium that will impact reach and frequency.
Print will be used to support the messages
being carried out to create awareness and change perception as well.
Checklist
·
During the research, our team identified
the target audience as natives between the ages of 15- 40 years.
·
Because our target audience include both
children and adults, the timing and the mediums chosen are good. Since the
older ones who listen to radio whiles the younger ones are in school and after
school, the young ones watch television.
·
The budget for broadcast is GHS 20,000.00,
which will be able to cater for television campaigns, which are the most
expensive, within the 12 months period for the campaign including radio.
GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM
LECTURER: MR. YAW ODAME GYAU
COURSE: ADVERTISING MEDIA PLANNING
CLASS: L 400 PUBLIC RELATIONS
NAMES INDEX NUMBER
WILHEMINA VANDERPUIJE BACS17936
HELENA MAAME ESI MENSAH BACS17888