It needs a consistent approach! Think:
- – Don’t drink and drive
- – Get your 5 a day
- – Stay home – protect the NHS – save lives
- – Clunk click every trip
All examples of successful behavioural change campaigns (mostly reinforced with legislation – a good old carrot and stick approach!), that were based on consistent, national, multi-channel messaging. Even so, none of them embedded into part of everyday lives overnight. And messages adapted overtime, based on learnings – let’s look at clunk click every trip as an example:
1965: It becomes compulsory to fit seat belts in the front of cars built in Europe.
1970: “Clunk Click” TV commercials, start – wearing rates very low.
1983: Front seat belt regulations for drivers and passengers come into force.
1989: Wearing rear seat belts become compulsory for children under 14.
1991: It becomes compulsory for adults to belt up in the back.
Up to this point there was adoption of seatbelt wearing, but not saturation. The advertising message was adapted in 1993 to show the danger of not wearing a seatbelt in the back as attitudinal surveys showed people were more likely to wear a seatbelt to save someone else, than to protect themselves!
There has been ongoing adapting of the targeting and messaging to reach those least likely to wear a seatbelt. From Peter Pan to Pizza… yet still it’s estimated around 14% of the population don’t wear seatbelts all of the time!
Decades of national advertising and consistent, targeted messaging, that adapts to behaviours and actions…yet nearly 50 years on around 350 people die each year (and many more injured), because they don’t wear a seatbelt!