Using social marketing to provide insight into underage/binge drinking A report for:

Using social marketing to provide insight into underage/binge drinking

A report for:

Purpose

Share insights from qualitative research into underage and binge drinking among young people

Consider potential interventions that may be developed across the network

Key objectives of project

Identify personal values and beliefs of underage and binge drinkers

Understand the motivations behind drinking and identify the barriers to

reducing this drinking

Understand who and what the influencers on binge drinkers are

Understand current awareness levels of previous campaigns aimed at reducing

binge and risky drinking

Identify what interventions would encourage these young people to drink with

less risk

Learn what motivating aspects of drinking less exist - if any

Look at language and key methods of communication to connect with this

audience

What was covered

Drinking behaviour

Behaviour and motivations

Conclusions and recommendations

Background and approach

Drivers to drink

Concept testing

Communications

Our approach

Approach

16 in-depth paired interviews at home (32 respondents)

Underage drinkers (aged 13-15)

Binge drinkers (aged 16-21) – drinking more than 10 units (females) and 14 units (males ) on the same day

Chelmsford Maldon Braintree

8 interviews 4 interviews 4 interviews

Best practice review, nationally and internationally, analysis of current campaigns

Stakeholder engagement and interviews

Important things to the age group are…

Important Things

Ipod

Mobile Phone

TVFriends

Money

Teacher

Under 16s tend to see

as a ‘relationship

of trust’InternetFacebook was used extensively

by all age groups

Family

Under 16s tend to see as a ‘relationship of trust’

Drivers to drink – All

Looking cool

Stop bad stuff happening to you

Being popular

Mates stick up for you

Having lots of friends

13-14 yr olds

Feeling safeHighest drivers

OutsmartingParental authority

Getting an adrenalin rush

Being clever

Breaking boundaries

Stopping boredom

15-16 yr olds

Being a rebel

Socialising

Peer pressure/fitting in

Not being boring

Not being an outcast

Feeling lonely

16+ yr olds

Being accepted

Relieving stress

Being with mates

Not being bored

Having fun

Getting away from pressures

All

Freedom

Drivers to drink changed greatly with age for respondents 16 and under, though freedom to do what they wanted was a key driver for all age groups

Lack of things to do

Lack of ‘things to do’ was a problem for young people in Maldon and Braintree

Young people in Chelmsford tended to be more satisfied

A greater amount of ‘free’ activities for young people to get involved with were

called for across all areas, particularly for 15/16/17 year olds

Communicating with the Target Audiences

Images in communication campaigns resonate most

strongly with respondents – large amounts of text are

thought to be pointless as they will not take the time to

read it

Personal negative experiences with alcohol appear to

have the greatest impact on young people’s drinking

habits

Perhaps surprising, having parents (particularly fathers)

‘sit them down’ and tell them the risks of excessive

drinking had a great effect on some, particularly

females

Key findings

Drinking is a rite of passage, parents, teens and community expect young people to drink – some stated it as an obligation

Drinking is the lesser evil to drugs and therefore parents turn a blind eye

Young people are well aware of the advertising and can quote campaigns such as ‘Know your limits’

Campaigns that feature personal negative outcomes resonate more as do those that give constructive advice

The role of the parents is underused…young people expressed a desire for parental involvement, particularly females

Key findings

Young people know that excessive drinking is bad for them

Recognise the images of excess…

Its just not them, its their friends, companions…they can manage their drink, they don’t drink to excess

Emphasises the positives of drink

-Confidence

-Being happy and relaxed

-Having a wider group of friends

-Release from stress and opportunity to rebel

Perceived safety and acceptance from their peers all prove too strong to stop young people drinking

Conclusions & recommendations

Both underage and binge drinking are regarded as social activities, and despite fulfilling

the recruitment quotas, no respondents thought that they were drinking excessive

amounts

To them, excessive drinking meant consuming alcohol every night of the week – just

drinking at weekends, no matter how much the amount, was believed to be acceptable

Older respondents (15+) strongly believed that they knew ‘how to handle’ their drink,

therefore, could not understand why there should be any campaigns /interventions with

regard to their drinking habits, or simply thought messages about excessive drinking did

not apply to them

Awareness raising as to the amount that young people are drinking will, therefore, be an

important starting point for a campaign/interventions

Recommendations – engage groups

The intervention must create a “pattern interrupt” trigger to break out of habitual behaviour

It is essential to engage groups of individuals to change the social norm and build belief that “everyone is doing it”

Recommendations - potential social marketing actions • Communications – raise awareness of the problem and create conviction that

change needs to occur

• immediate impact of drinking on “people like me” (physical and emotional wellbeing), realistic unit guidance and clear health impacts, impact on loved ones, time to live life to the full

• Products and services – provide tools that make it easy to act

• drink cards/loyalty schemes, rewards and incentives for groups and individuals (perhaps involving an element of competition and personal reward for cutting down)

• Collaborations – create communities of interest

• partnerships with others who share our goal with parents/schools and in the alcohol industry, delivering benefits to local communities/pubs, integration of messages through healthcare and community channels

• Policy – track progress and reinforce

• Send out clear message through increased pricing, mandatory testing, measure impact

Recommendations – the process of persuasion

Raise awareness of the problem

Create a belief that change needs to occur

Provide tools that make it easy to act

Create communities of interest

Track progress and reinforce

Engage Inspire Embed

Highlight impact on “people like me”

Parental/school support

Pubs/bars