Social marketing and alcohol

The first step in any social marketing project is to define your objectives. The main aims of alcohol social marketing are:

• To get people who are drinking at increasing and higher risk levels to reduce their consumption
• To provide the necessary support and information to help them do so

Set behaviour change objectives and measure against National Indicators

When working on social marketing alcohol projects, make sure you measure project benchmarks against national indicators to ensure consistency and objectivity. The Government has developed a number of key indicators in their efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm. Broadly, these measure perceptions of anti-social behaviour, alcohol misuse by young people, and alcohol-related hospital admissions.

The overall aim of all our social marketing activity - at a local and national level - is to reduce alcohol-related hospital admissions.

Working with an external agency

External agencies with expertise in social marketing can help you with your social marketing project. You can commission an agency to undertake your entire project from scoping through to evaluation or you can carry out a specific stage or element. For example, you could appoint a specialist evaluation agency to conduct an independent evaluation or a market research agency to conduct primary research as part of the scoping stage.

Agree processes and procedures at the start of the project, ideally through a face to face kick off meeting. At this meeting, aim to:

• Identify the project manager on both sides
• Establish agreed reporting mechanisms and timings
• Agree outputs (what the PCT can expect to see from the agency and when)
• Agree targets and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the specific activity the agency is undertaking, based on the project aims and objectives and how they will be measured
• Tell the agency about existing PCT expertise and capability to avoid any duplication of activity
• Set a budget with the agency and agree costs

Provide the agency with an update on any activity undertaken on the project before they were appointed, details of key stakeholders they should to speak to project and any existing insights held by your PCT. Examples of useful insights include:

• Attitudinal research undertaken previously with the target audience (this doesn't have to be in relation to alcohol specifically, other insight can be useful too)
• Examples of existing and previous communications materials that promote sensible drinking or other campaigns aimed at the target audience
• Evaluation of previous communications campaigns focusing on alcohol
• Relevant statistics, such as local hospital admissions data or other data used to inform the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
• Local audience segmentation data

The NSMC has a useful guide to the procurement process and specific advice about how to write a tender brief. Download it from 'Tools' in the 'Resources, documents and presentations' section of www.nsmcentre.org.uk.

DH would like you to share your evaluation using the evaluation template and discuss your social marketing activity in the online forum.