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Campaign Overview
- The third Phase of the Travel Awareness campaign ran between September 2003 and February 2004. While previously entitled Learn to Let Go, the campaign was re-branded as Choose Another Way in September 2003.
- The wider strategy of the campaign remained: 'To increase the number of journeys made by walking, cycling and public transport and to encourage more sensible use of the car.'
- Choose Another Way was concentrated on a geographically smaller area than the Learn to Let Go campaign and centred around the theme of choice. Its aim was to make people think twice about using the car for regular journeys and to highlight and encourage alternatives to car transport.
- The third Phase of the campaign focused on drivers in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh - the major centres of congestion and suitable transport infrastructure - and used outdoor advertising, radio advertising and sponsorship. Research was conducted among respondents across Scotland to assess how effective the campaign had been.
Highlights
- When asked whether there was a major public transport option available to make the majority of their journeys, 45% of people who usually drive a car said yes and 51% said no.
- Respondents in the 45-54 age group were the least likely to agree that public transport was an option available to make the majority of their journeys (37% agreed); the youngest and oldest age groups were most likely to agree. Respondents who were employed (42%) were also less likely to agree with this statement than respondents who were unemployed (55%).
- Campaign recall amongst those who usually drive cars was 36%, while 14% were aware of the campaign website www.chooseanotherway.com. Recall of the website was highest among 25-34 year olds (19%). It should be noted that campaign awareness may have been higher if research had only been conducted in the campaign's main target areas (Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh).
Implications
- The total audience for this campaign was calculated on expected combined radio and outdoor reach of approximately 880,320 members of the general public. The total number of drivers in Scotland at the time of the research was 4,070,000. The total campaign reach was, therefore, 21.6% of drivers.
- Given the proportion of respondents who stated that public transport was not an option available to make the majority of their journeys (just over half) it is possible that a large proportion of the respondents who stated that the advert had been unsuccessful in making them consider alternatives to the car were people who would never consider public transport due to persistent perceived barriers. This is consistent with other research which points to the complex factors involved in promoting lower levels of car use 1.
1Derek Halden Consultancy (2003) Barriers to Modal Shift, Scottish Executive Social Research