Case Study

The North West acquisition pilot (2008)

The North West has the highest rate of alcohol-related illness in England, which is why it was chosen for a DH social marketing pilot that targeted increasing risk and higher risk drinkers. The aim of the pilot was to engage, or acquire, 'new' drinkers who were in these categories and to measure and track their behaviour over time. The pilot also tested the self-help pathway, described in the Resources section, and looked at what encouraged higher risk drinkers to respond to the direct marketing materials.

Scoping

To develop a model that identified where increasing risk and higher risk drinkers were likely to live, two types of profiles were used: ACORN profiles and profiles of increasing risk and higher risk drinkers developed by DH.

ACORN is a tool that looks at the lifestyles and characteristics of people living in different areas. It breaks this down into postcodes. Although typically used by businesses, it can give healthcare practitioners a 'pen portrait' of their local communities.

The DH profiles identified the characteristics of different types of drinker - for example, 'depressed drinkers' might use alcohol as a form of self-medication, 'de-stress drinkers' might use alcohol to wind down at the end of the day and 'community drinkers' get a sense of community by drinking in a social group. New profiles are planned to be available from the summer from the ALC website - please see the Segmenting your audiences section for more information.

Communications activity

Direct marketing was used as an initial vehicle to encourage increasing risk and higher risk drinkers to order the Your Drinking and You self-help booklet and cut down on their drinking. People were targeted through direct mail, door drops, press inserts and email. Responses were sought via a freepost coupon, the drinkcheck website and the drinkline helpline. Unique codes and telephone numbers were assigned to the response channels to allow accurate tracking of responders and evaluation of the campaign's effectiveness.

Evaluation

The pilot's successes included:

• More than 6,000 people responded to the campaign. The majority of these were 'contemplators', that is people who were already concerned about their drinking
• Very accurate targeting, which led to 'high quality' responses. Respondents came from lower socio-economic groups and there was an equal mix of men and women. Most were ready to change their behaviour
• Positive feedback about the self-help manual
• Useful feedback about the key messages used to engage higher risk drinkers - see summary in the next section

The freepost coupon was the most effective at generating orders of the self-help booklet, possibly because it did not require internet access and was anonymous. The helpline was well received amongst people with easy access to a landline, and the website was the worst performing channel, perhaps because of the requirement to complete a questionnaire before being able to order the booklet.

Future phases of activity will look to measure behaviour change outcomes. A similar pilot was carried out in the East Midlands. To learn more about this go to our case study.

Summary of message testing findings

In March 2009, to further develop insight from the North West pilot, the key materials from the activity were revised and put into qualitative research to find out what the target audience felt about the messages and tone of the content. The research results are included here to assist you with developing your own materials. Findings included the following:

• The 'general health' message ('When does drinking start to affect my health?') was the most positively received and had the broadest appeal
• 'Neutral nudge' ('Are you drinking too much?') worked in a similar way to 'general health', but was sometimes interpreted as accusatory or dismissed as not relevant
• 'Stern' ('Regular drinking can lead to serious health problems') was disliked by most as it was seen as dictatorial and forced drinkers to feel concerned before they were ready
• 'Testimonial' ('Drinking, I never realised the harm it was doing me.') was the least engaging as it was not contextualised, could be dismissed (as not relevant) and was seen as too 'gimmicky'
• Although the supporting messages were often overlooked, on reflection, 'general health' ('There's a proven link between drinking and up to 60 different medical conditions') and 'neutral nudge' ('How much is too much?') were the strongest and complemented the lead message
• The language and tonality considered effective and most appealing was when it was conversational, approachable and inclusive
• Recommendations for developing the materials to increase response rates include: increasing the relevance and benefits of the booklet for drinkers across all stages of the journey towards behaviour change; enhancing the flow of information to lead drinkers directly to the call to action; and using more accessible information channels (e.g. available online, available at supermarkets/GP surgeries)

Further Information

Visit the National Centre for Social Marketing's Case Study section for further details on the NW Pilot including information about segmentation.