Published on 23 March 2022

Be in the KNOW is here – a new digital brand offering trusted, engaging and sex positive content designed to help young people understand, discuss and take action to protect their sexual health.

It’s a new beginning, following an 18-month journey of user engagement and iterative development, but it’s also the product of many years of data analysis and learning from Avert.org and Avert’s other digital projects. We’re clear about the changing sexual health information needs of the epidemic, the changing digital environment, and the importance of finding different ways to reach and engage a new generation around HIV and sexual health.

The new brand, spreading across web and social, is one of the ways Avert is putting its new strategy ‘From knowledge to action’ into practice - focusing on engaging and actionable content that can build HIV and sexual health literacy among information seekers and support the work of educators and health practitioners.

Be in the KNOW’s website and social channels aim to close the knowledge gaps that exist among individuals in so many of the places most affected by HIV, particularly East and Southern Africa, and will provide community and primary health workers with the knowledge they need to support their communities’ sexual health.

So what’s new?

The Be in the KNOW website is built from the ground up for mobile, and designed using technologies that increase access for our target audiences by minimising data requirements, maximising speed on slower connections, and improving user experience on smaller screen sizes. All this has been done with the people we are trying to reach at the centre.

The new brand is youthful, inclusive, sex positive, evidence-based, and independent. Its aim is to build health literacy on sexual health and HIV, using content that engages and connects with people’s priorities and purpose.

The content is built on years of usage and engagement analytics, insights from online search volumes and key word research, experience in search engine optimisation, and most importantly, years of engagement and co-creation with our target audiences.

All this helps to ensure that those who are looking for help find Be in the KNOW, not misinformation. And when they do find Be in the KNOW – whether on the website or social media – they engage, consume, explore and share, creating reasons for users to return while building up an online community.

What do the changes mean?

Be in the KNOW offers a more tailored resource, primarily for individuals in East and Southern Africa, and for the community health workers and primary practitioners that support them.
Some in-depth resources that were available on Avert.org most suited to researchers and policy makers are not available on Be in the KNOW. We want to reduce duplication and this type of content is already available through other quality sites like UNAIDS and WHO.

What has not changed is our commitment to evidence-based HIV and sexual health content you can trust.

For many, Avert.org has been an old friend. The HIV education site launched in 1995, and in the 27 years since, the award-winning site became one of the world’s leading online providers of HIV and AIDS information, reaching around 750,000 people every month across almost every country in the world. But needs and priorities change, and we are focusing our efforts where we see the most pressing gaps.

Be in the KNOW is a new brand with a new purpose, and it builds on all we’ve learned from you, our users, supporters and partners.

We would love for you to share Be in the KNOW with your networks and, of course, get in touch to let us know what you think!

Photo credit: iStock/MesquitaFMS. Photos are used for illustrative purposes. They do not imply health status or behaviour.