The Sputnik V vaccine was not only the first to be registered against Covid-19, but also the one that had one of the most striking strategies of dissemination on social networks. The Russian government-funded media outlet reported, in the best storytime style typical of an influencer, the vaccination of its most popular journalists in order to demonstrate its effectiveness and mitigate the skepticism that surrounded it.
For English-speaking audiences, war correspondent Maria Finóshina and documentary filmmaker Konstantin Rozhkov volunteered, and for Latin America it was Inna Afinogenova, who is the host of the popular YouTube channel Ahí les va. They took it upon themselves to show the world their experience after being inoculated via the internet.
The development of this digital vaccine advertising strategy is not fortuitous. Indeed, some experts regard it as part of vaccine diplomacy and/or soft power, which consists of using this scientific development, both its geographic distribution and the use of media associated with Russia, to improve its image and influence in foreign countries.
However, some skeptics believe that this strategy is just another tool of disinformation produced by the Kremlin to flood social media with false, conspiratorial and propagandistic content to destabilize democracies globally.
The vaccine from the Russian laboratory Gamaleya is 91.6% effective against the symptomatic Covid-19 virus, according to the British medical journal The Lancet Regional Health Americas. These results were met with skepticism by European countries, the United States and the WHO due to their rapid development and unethical practices such as lack of transparency in reporting and in the manufacturing process.
Despite this, the vaccine has been used in 11 countries in the region, including Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Health.
This could be a confirmation of the so-called return of the Kremlin to Latin America, in which Russia seeks to position itself as a new ally for economic and social development, slightly distancing itself from the military approach that has historically characterized it.
Advertising, journalism and influencers
Sputnik V’s digital outreach strategy has two essential components: the website and the presenters’ social media content. The website launched in August 2020 and is available in nine languages: Russian, English, Mandarin, Modern Standard Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Tagalog and Malay. It also has its respective social networks on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
It even has a very attractive section called media, where you can find a large number of press releases that have been produced about the drug around the world. There are also regional media outlets such as Prensa Latina in Cuba, Télam in Argentina and Canal 4 in Uruguay. In other words, the content of this site and its networks have become the official source of information about the vaccine that seeks to dispel mistrust surrounding it.
The second component of the strategy is content produced by RT’s most popular journalist in Latin America, Inna Afinogenova, who has 306,668 followers on Twitter and recently reached one million subscribers on YouTube. In order to create more trust among the Spanish speaking public, the journalist volunteered for phase III of the vaccine and shared her experience on her social networks.
In September 2020, he announced his participation in the 180-day process in a tweet that received more than ten thousand likes. He then made a series of publications highlighting the vaccine’s effectiveness, three of which appear among the 10 most retweeted in reports with geolocation in Colombia, according to the Green Lantern survey.
On September 23, 2020, Inna posted a video on her YouTube channel in which she reports, in video-blog format, her personal experience of being inoculated. This video got over 400k views and over 5k comments. The latter were created by users from different countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, among others, who repeatedly congratulate and thank you for your courage in this process to end the pandemic.
Some of them even mentioned that they considered it an honor to volunteer for vaccine trials. In the following months, Inna continued to post content analyzing SputnikV’s reception in the region via YouTube, as well as suggesting that the vaccine criticism is a disinformation campaign against Russia.
Manipulation or success on the internet?
Many analysts and journalists have recently questioned RT’s digital success in Latin America, suggesting that the metrics and interaction data are unreliable, as they are produced by supposed bots -semi-automated accounts- that are responsible for making this type of content go viral. . Given this, research, at least in Latin America, remains inconclusive. Therefore, academia and civil society organizations must continue to monitor the behavior of these affiliated media outlets and their followers in order to obtain conclusive results.
Admittedly, Sputnik V’s outreach strategy is an example of the successful adaptation of Russian media and their social media makers in Latin America. Inna is a prime example of this, using her networks to try to demystify vaccine skepticism. In addition, she has used digital platforms to reach new audiences, especially young people, with a new format and sarcastic language that has positioned her in the region.
