Scottish Government

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

Campaign overview

• The attached report evaluates the second phase of the Scottish Executive's Know The Score Anti-Heroin advertising campaign which ran between August 14 ^th and September 17 ^th 2006 and was delivered through TV, radio and billboard advertising.
• The post-campaign evaluation focused particularly on young people (aged 16 -34) from social classes C2DE, the key targets for the campaign based on previous intelligence about patterns of Class A drugs misuse.
• The quantitative evaluation of the first phase of the campaign showed very high campaign awareness (92%). Therefore, it was felt that a shift to a qualitative evaluation (by conducting focus groups and interviews following the campaign) would continue to provide a sense of campaign awareness but would importantly reveal more in depth insights into how effectively the campaign has been received among both our core audience (16-34 year olds) and our secondary audience (13-15 year olds).
• This research builds on the findings of the quantitative evaluation of the first phase of the campaign which found that the Scottish Executive's advertising aimed at tackling perceptions around drugs misuse is appealing successfully to young people (aged 16- 25) across Scotland.

Highlights

• Encouragingly, the research reported very high levels of campaign awareness and that the advertising was effective in communicating the key themes of the campaign and an anti-drugs/heroin message to both target audiences.

• Among the core audience (16-34s):
• • The research reported that focusing on specific drugs was a more effective strategy than issuing generic drugs communication largely due to the fact that this sort of generic messaging lacks credibility with this audience.
  • The TV and radio advertising was well received and believed to deliver a credible and emotionally engaging anti-heroin message.
  • Encouragingly, the research identified significant common ground in terms of attitudes to heroin amongst 16 to 34 year olds; thereby reinforcing our current approach of communicating to such a broad age group via a single campaign.
  • The research also suggests that a key driver in terms of audience and their consumption of both media and campaign messages is the socio-economic group they belong to rather than their age or sex.
• Among the secondary audience (13-15s):
• • This group (who were not specifically targeted with this campaign) responded very well, particularly to the radio advertising which communicated a simpler message.
  • As there is no immediate plan to develop anti-heroin communications specific to this age group, it is encouraging that the current campaign is able to effectively communicate an anti-drugs/heroin message to a younger audience.

Implications

• The report recommends the continued use of existing platforms to communicate key information and suggests some other methods of distribution (such as schools work) and media channels which are important for Know the Score to explore.
• The report recommends that future advertising could communicate a message around the relationship between social non-heroin drug taking and problematic heroin use.