9 out of 10 Ukrainians receive news about Coronavirus from the Institute of Cognitive Modeling

The Institute of Cognitive Modeling used the coronavirus as a chance to implement social projects and launched large-scale national projects «Coronavirus_info» and «Tell me» in conditions of limited time and resources. The jury of the European Excellence Awards and Effie Awards Ukraine noted the effectiveness of both projects. Viktor Berezenko, founder of the Institute of Cognitive Modeling, and Svitlana Paveletska, CEO of the company, spoke about this during a speech at the Effie award ceremony.

«We are accustomed to receiving everyday statistics about the number of patients, tests performed, and information about methods of protection. But let’s remember February, the month of complete information chaos when people did not know where to get the real facts. In a matter of hours, we created a mechanism for quickly informing the public about the coronavirus,» Berezenko said.

The results of the «Coronavirus_info» campaign are as follows: creating the most popular community on Viber, launching one of the most reliable Telegram channels about COVID-19 in the world, as well as reaching 27,7 million Ukrainians. All this demonstrates the effectiveness of using social technologies and the importance of interaction with public authorities, digital giants, business structures, and volunteers.

«We have established effective cooperation with the offices of international companies – Google, Facebook, Viber, and Telegram, and scaled the project to counteract the coronavirus. Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov helped build cooperation with the Telegram office in the first few days, which gave us a powerful impetus for the development of the community. Cooperation with the Ministry of Health, the Red Cross Society of Ukraine, and UNICEF allowed us to use additional tools for the rapid spread of reliable information. Thanks to effective joint work, 9 out of 10 Ukrainians receive information about the coronavirus from our sources,» concluded the founder of ICM.

Along with the information campaign to counteract the coronavirus, the Institute of Cognitive Modeling has launched the psychological support platform «Tell me». It was designed to help fight anxiety and panic attacks that can occur during the period of illness, rehabilitation, or even just from the thought of the possibility of getting sick. This platform is also a tool for forming a culture of mental health among Ukrainians.

«It is important for us that Ukrainians know what mental health is and treat it as carefully as physical health. Contacting a psychologist is normal, personal psychological hygiene should concern everyone. The coronavirus has shown this need, which is why we created the project «Tell me,» Svitlana Paveletska said.

The CEO of the Institute noted that asking for help should be something easy to do. Exactly this message was broadcast through a digital platform, external and internal advertising, social videos, and publications in the media. 70% of citizens who applied for psychological advice through the platform admitted that they did it for the first time in their lives. Currently, more than 140 psychologists are working on the project, and already provided approximately 14,000 hours of consultations.

«We used the coronavirus as a chance. Both «Coronavirus_info» and «Tell me» prove that in conditions of limited resources, it is possible to create something that changes the world,» Viktor and Svitlana stated.

The Institute of Cognitive Modeling provides communication support to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. In partnership with Facebook, the information campaign on the coronavirus pandemic covered 15 million Ukrainians, and in cooperation with Google 6.7 million. ICM has created the largest Viber and Telegram community «Coronavirus_info», which has almost 4 million followers, the largest educational community in Ukraine «School_info»’ and the free psychological assistance service «Tell me». The company also provides informational support to TV channels Kyiv.live and Odesa.live.