People-powered progress
Bringing 4.5m citizen scientists together to fight COVID-19
The challenge: When the UK went into lockdown, there wasn’t a plan for tracking COVID-19. Over a weekend in March the ZOE team created a symptom logging app and a few days later we had 1.5 million UK users. The app now has over 4.5 million users globally and is the world’s largest citizen science project studying the present and long-term effects of COVID-19.
The approach: I led our data-driven communications strategy with the ZOE data science unit and teams of scientists at King’s College London, Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford University and Lund University. By focussing on user-level data and trends in the UK, US and Sweden we drove the news agenda by identifying hotspots, new symptoms and comparing data across countries. Our hotspot detection program was quickly adopted as a data feed directing into the Prime Minister’s office, SAGE and both the Scottish and Welsh governments. It is the data behind news you’ll see today.
Results: I led a press team of one that drove over 6,000 pieces of global coverage across broadcast and digital channels in three months, including four pieces in the New York Times, a feature in the Wall Street Journal and coverage in Wired, TechCrunch and Vox. By July, we set up a direct data feed and relationship with the BBC data science unit.
From March through to May, our app user base grew to 4 million users through press, influencer campaigns (Yotam Ottolenghi, Liz Earle) and partnerships with the UK’s largest charities and healthcare bodies including all of the Royal Medical Colleges.
I led a webinar series attended by over 100,000 people, e-mail marketing campaigns delivering data-driven content that continue to drive over 70% open rate and 50%+ CTR through to the site and app.
Through weekly content our YouTube channel grew from zero to over 50,000 followers with Dr. Tim Spector doubling his following globally on Twitter and Instagram.
In August 2020, we secured a £2 million grant from the UK Government to continue our vital research. In October, Dr. Tim Spector was also awarded an OBE for his work on the COVID Symptom Study. The app continues to collect valuable data and insights around vaccines globally.
