After successfully scaring Britons into staying indoors during the lockdown, Boris Johnson’s government is set to launch a more sophisticated messaging strategy for the next stage of its fight against coronavirus.
The bluntness of Downing Street’s key slogan to date reflects the strictness of the shutdown: “Stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS”. But the next phase is more complex and requires a more nuanced message that may emphasise getting the country working again.
“We were telling everyone we’re all in this together and everyone was really being asked to do the same thing,” said one government official. “Now we’re going to be saying different things, to different people, at different times.”
Gradually easing the lockdown also requires a communications strategy that can convince Britons it is safe to leave their homes, given the high level of compliance.
The shutdown was deemed too successful by some in government, forcing health secretary Matt Hancock to urge people to attend hospital if they suspected they were seriously ill.
“Our comms have been the best in Europe. We scared everyone ****less, but now we have to undo some of that,” one Conservative MP said.
Another government official told the Financial Times: “Both in the message and the execution, we need to communicate progress so people feel their efforts in the lockdown have delivered results and they can be confident about slowly beginning to return to their normal lives.”
The strategy is being overseen by Isaac Levido, the Australian political strategist behind Mr Johnson’s general election victory, who was credited with the “Get Brexit Done” slogan.
Employers are worried that people will not listen to new guidance on returning to work. “If workforces don't feel safe then we are going to have a really big problem,” a senior business figure said.
The new messaging is expected to reflect Downing Street’s priorities about getting the economy moving again. Those involved with drawing up the plans for the next phase participated in a call on Friday with businesses where slogans were discussed about putting Britain “back to work”.
Such fears are well founded. According to polling by Ipsos Mori, Britons are some of the least likely to believe that their country should be opened up — behind the US, France, Germany, Australia, Italy and Japan.
There are also high levels of concern among Britons about returning to normal activities. A net -40 per cent in the Ipsos Mori poll were concerned about using public transport and -32 per cent were ready to return to restaurants and pubs.
David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, told the BBC that the fear among British citizens was “very worrying” and people were “definitely over-anxious” about coronavirus.
“We do need to have some sort of campaign to encourage people who are very low risk to actually get out and start living again when we're able to,” he said.
An example of what the new communications strategy looks like came in Thursday’s press conference. Mr Johnson devoted much of the briefing to discussing the ‘R’ rate: how fast coronavirus spreads and the importance of keeping this rate low. The National Health Service also produced a short explainer video on the R rate.
As in the lockdown, Number 10 insiders insist that the easing process will be guided by scientific advice. But an ally of Mr Johnson said that the science would play a more prominent role in the future. “The video about R shows the direction of travel,” the individual said.
Some Conservative MPs are concerned that basing a communications campaign on the R metric could be risky, especially if the data is incomplete or pushes the government into another shutdown.
“The fetishisation of the ‘R’ rate is a dangerous thing. The data is very ropey,” one senior MP said. “The infection rate is inevitably going to grow when the economy opens up. If we are telling people that it has to stay way below 1 until there is a vaccine, it risks backfiring and we could force ourselves into another lockdown.”
A Whitehall official said that the exact message for the next phase would not be finalised until early next week. “You can’t craft a message before you’ve got the direction and policy. Whatever comes next will be based on the best policy evidence we have at that date.”
