On Monday 6 April 2020, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced their partnership with the video games industry to promote essential health messaging on COVID-19 into more UK homes. The initiative will see ‘Stay Home, Save Lives’ messaging appear in some of the world’s most popular games, including games produced by Codemasters and Rebellion.
TIGA is encouraging games businesses to get involved with this initiative, and DCMS have now provided further details on what video games companies can do to promote this message, and how they can play their part. The communication from the DCMS team is included below:
Stay at Home – The Ask
We are getting in touch to ask for your urgent and invaluable support in getting an essential message out to the public about protecting us all from coronavirus.
There is an urgent need for everyone, regardless of their age and whether or not they have symptoms, to ensure they are following the social distancing rules in order to protect the NHS and save lives – nobody is safe and even if someone doesn’t have symptoms, they could still be a carrier for the virus, so these rules are being enforced to protect everyone.
As someone who is so influential to people across the country, we are looking for your help in using your channels to highlight just how important it is for people to listen to this advice and stay at home – the impact you can make will be huge. This advice really could be lifesaving.
We have made some suggestions on how to get involved below and we hope you can help us get this message out far and wide to your followers at this critical time.
Thank you in advance,
The ask:
- Support the ‘Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save lives’ message on your social channels (see key messages below).
- You can retweet or share content from the official NHS accounts (@NHSuk on Twitter and @nhswebsite on Instagram).
- Share posts which summarise the key messages.
- Post a video message to your followers urging them to follow the advice.
- And/or post a still image supporting this message in some way and providing some tips and advice on what you’re doing to get through these times when staying at home. For example:
- Speaking to / video calling friends and family.
- Spending time with immediate family you live with.
- Reading.
- Listening to podcasts.
- Watching a TV series.
- Playing online/or board games.
- Exercising at home/in garden.
- Cooking.
- Share your favourite music playlist.
Do:
- Be authentic. It is important to convey the gravitas of the situation, but please don’t feel constrained by the above. Be creative and do whatever feels most natural for you. It could simply be a message about the importance of the advice.
- Be empathic – recognise it is not easy for everyone, but it is important that we all follow the instructions from the medical experts.
- Feel free to talk about how you sympathise with how frustrating it is to have to stay at home and not see your friends and family but keep positive and emphasise that right now it’s for the greater good.
- Use some of the hashtags #stayhomesavelives #fromthecomfort, #stayhome, #protecttheNHS, #savelives, #coronavirus and #COVID19.
- Be conscious of the framing and background of your video/image – please film your video inside, rather than in your garden or when outside for exercise/essential shopping.
- Where possible, please add: For more information, visit NHS.uk @NHSuk.
- Please do tag other friends and influential people in your post and encourage them to share their tips and advice.
- If possible, please encourage people to only listen to and share advice from official sources such as the NHS and to be mindful of what they are sharing on their social media platforms relating to the coronavirus outbreak.
Don’t:
- Criticise official guidance.
- Feel you need to add any clinical messaging to your post.
- Use any language that may be deemed offensive or trivialise the impact of the virus.
Key messages:
- Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives
- Coronavirus is serious and we all have our part to play in protecting not only ourselves, but others too and slowing down the spread of this virus.
- We must stand as one and follow the guidance – stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.
- Even if you don’t have symptoms, you can still pass the virus onto others. Do not meet friends and family you don’t live with, because you could be putting them at risk.
- By keeping a safe distance – 2 metres – from other people, it becomes much harder for the virus to spread.
- The single most important thing we can do is stay at home.
- You should only go outside for one of these reasons: to buy essential food, get medical care or for exercise by yourself or with your household once a day. You should not go outside for any other reason.
- If you do go outside, always stay two metres apart.
- Continue to regularly wash your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds or more and using soap & water.
TIGA is encouraging members to participate in this this initiative, so that the video games industry can play its part in tackling the COVID-19 outbreak. For any further questions, please contact Dr Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA on richard.wilson@tiga.org.