Social marketing for sexual health campaigns

Jonathan Upton

The Campaign CompanyThe Campaign Company

Key issues

•Why we behave as we do•How we make sense of the world•Clarify objectives and vital behaviours•Behavioural drivers and influences

Social marketing: gaining insight into behaviour

We now know lots about how people behave, but do we know enough about why people behave as they do?

What might motivate you to buy this car?

Traditional segmentation might tell you that as these people behave the same way, they should be engaged the same way

What might have motivated them?

What might have motivated them?

“It's a safe choice and I will save money!”

What might have motivated them?

“I bet the neighbours will be impressed!” “It's a safe choice

and I will save money!”

What might have motivated them?

“I bet the neighbours will be impressed!”

“It's good for the environment!”

“It's a safe choice and I will save money!”

Same behaviour……different reasons

Values based segmentation:Values based segmentation:identifying what drives peopleidentifying what drives people

• Inner directed (Pioneers): comfortable in own skin, networked, do their own thing

• Outer directed: (Prospectors): striving, care about opinion of others, tangible results

• Sustenance driven (Settlers): core needs, safety, belonging

Same behaviour……different reasons

Behaviour and valuesBehaviour and values

•Whether people act is determined by what drives them - not simply by information

•People may act in the same way but for different reasons – driven by their values

•Requires us to understand people, not the issue

Behaviour and valuesBehaviour and values• We know a lot about how people

behave• We can now discover why people

behave as they do – what is driving them or perhaps demotivating them

• We therefore need to understand what interventions can change or reinforce behaviour:

• Clear objectives• Narratives• Vital behaviours• Drivers for change• Factors of influence

Clarifying objectives

Identify and clarify the objective including:

•Outcomes

•Client targeting

•Specific behaviour requiring change

Clarifying vital behaviours

•Identify the vital behaviours that have the most impact on the desired objective

•Such behaviours should be recognisable and repeatable

•Could be a positive behaviour that needs reinforcing and supporting through promoting a social norm

•The vital behaviour should be the call to arms for those who might be recruited locally as local peer champions

Making sense of the world: narratives

•The stories people tell themselves and each other to make sense of the world

•Need to understand the prevailing narrative held by individuals and wider communities

•Enables new stories to be developed to connect with people at an emotional level – emotions will always trump facts

Making sense of the world: Barnsley

“If it happens, it happens, I would prefer to not know. In any case I don't really know where to go and even if I did it would be really embarrassing. Also I wouldn't want my parents to know.”

Drivers for change

Two main drivers for change:•Ability: “Do I have the ability, or is there anything stopping me”? e.g awareness of service, condoms readily available

•Motivation: “What's in it for me of for people like me”? e.g. Do I want to change? What are my friends doing?

Factors of influence

•Personal factors•Social factors•Structural and design factors

Factors of influencePersonal factors

• We ‘go with the flow’ or pre-set options

• Our attention is drawn to what is novel and seems relevant to us

• Our emotional associations can powerfully shape our actions

• We act in ways that make us feel better about ourselves

• Key influences on personal behaviour: habits, salience, emotions, ego

Social factors

• We are heavily influenced by who communicates information

• We are strong influenced by what others do

• We seek to be consistent with our public promises and reciprocate acts

• Key influences on social behaviour: peer messengers (those liked or with authority) social norms, social proof, commitments, reciprocation,

Structural and design factors – upstream or strategic social marketing

• Our responses to incentives are shaped by predictable mental shortcuts such as strongly avoiding losses

• Our acts are often influenced by sub-conscious cues

• Having a ‘product’ to offer

• Key influences on behaviour: incentives, scarcity, framing, priming

Summary

•Segmentation•Use insight to understand world views and test possible alternative narratives

•Clarify vital behaviours•Identify the range of interventions including operational/upstream

•Evaluation

Case study: Barnsley

•High level of teenage conception – 49.7 per 1000 girls aged 15-17

•High geographical concentrations underlie the average – 89.4 per 1000 girls

Barnsley: clarifying objectives

•Understanding the detailed geographical concentrations that underlay the average

•Increase awareness of services•Make the use of sexual health services the local social norm

Barnsley: why do we behave as we do

•A values based approach with focus predominantly on Settlers and some Prospectors

•Ensuring narrative contained messages relevant to each of these groups e.g. safety, peer group perceptions etc

Barnsley: making sense of the world

• Insight work with over 300 young people in Barnsley as well as interviews with local stakeholders involved in this area of work

• Prevailing world view: “If it happens, it happens, I would prefer to not know. In any case I don't really know where to go and even if I did it would be really embarrassing. Also I wouldn't want my parents to know.”

• Testing a possible narrative: “What do I really know about this? I do now know there is free information, free condoms and it is completely safe and confidential. The friends I know and trust say it is ok to use, but if I do use the service myself no-one else will know”

Barnsley: vital behaviours

• The biggest barrier was lack of awareness of the service

• Creating easy ways to remind people to access services

• Vital behaviour 1: access the “what do you know?” website

• Vital behaviour 2: wear a wristband to normalise the issue

• Vital behaviour 3: join the C-Card scheme

Barnsley: ability and motivation

• Develop a local peer champions and provide effective training for them. Create a public story so easier for friends to talk about it to normalise the issue

• Video for schools on choices and how treated, engagement in youth clubs, so young people see their peers are being engaged with

• Targeted messages through local radio station using DJ’s with the most credibility with the target audience

• Create "what do you know?” website and promote it in all literature and through a wristband. Events and leafleting in the town centre and other places that shows the issue is an important one. Promote local C-Card scheme as part of wider range of options available

• Information to focus on the risks if one stays ignorant – market through posters

Barnsley: intervention

Barnsley: lessons learned

•Met objective

•Awareness of campaign – 100% in survey conducted in town centre.

•People viewing video.

•Ways to recruit peer champions

Using social marketing to understand the why of behaviour?

•Clear objectives•Deep insight•Segmentation to understand why

people behave as well as how •Develop overarching narrative with

messages for all targeted segments•Identify vital behaviour•Motivation and ability framework

values first