Public Health Wales: Personas for more effective health communication

Making social media work harder for public health

During the pandemic, Public Health Wales saw a surge in social media followers - but who were they, and how could communications become more targeted and useful? They wanted to better understand their audience and use that insight to design more effective, inclusive campaigns that support their wider public health mission.
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Approach

We ran a comprehensive mixed-methods research project, with an emphasis on collaboration. We explored effective ways to use social media to meet users' needs, how effectively the organisation was reaching the target audience, and how channels could be used to support the organisation’s wider objectives. We reviewed social channels, conducted qualitative and quantitative research into user behavior, ran workshops, and co-created a set of personas to inform future strategy.
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Insights

Useful insight the work uncovered included:

• An interest in public health often comes from personal challenges, with almost half of survey respondents reporting having a chronic health condition or disability. Interviews also revealed personal or family health issues such as supporting an aging relative, young people's mental health, or more impacting conditions like MS.
• Many of Public Health Wales' followers work in care. Many of their followers are women who often take on a carer role within their families.
• Mental health emerged as a top concern throughout the research, with participants indicating an awareness of their own mental health or others' struggles. They look to Public Health Wales to lead the way in addressing this crisis.
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Outcomes

We created a set of audience personas designed for everyday use:

• Digitally delivered and print-ready - with poster formats for team walls and meetings
• Tactile and practical - designed to prompt conversation, not sit in a drawer
• Backed by a toolkit - with practical tips for tone, messaging and targeting

This work helped Public Health Wales shift from generic content to strategic, audience-informed communication - building capability across teams and aligning communications with real-world needs.
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Public Health Wales used the insight to inform its communication strategy for the coming year. 

Danny Donovan, digital communications manager, said:

“It’s critical for us to be able to communicate vital public health messages to our audiences on social media. This research is supporting our understanding of who our key audiences are, what they need, providing us with insight into how effectively we are reaching that audience, and helping us to use each channel to deliver real value.

“The best thing about working with Healthia is their deep research capability and meticulous project management. The team quickly formed a good understanding of the brief, our situation and audiences. The project moved seamlessly through the phases from ideation to delivery of personas.

“I valued their approach to packaging up the insights into something useful. It is now easy to apply the personas to our content development and evaluation processes because the presentation of the personas is clear and easy to understand."