Drinkaware: campaigns start to effect behaviour change

Published: 27 February, 2012

Drinkaware's message is getting through - research into how effective the charity's campaigns are has shown the beginnings of behaiour change.

Independent research has shown that each initiative has exceeded the goals set at the beginning of 2011.

Chris Sorek, Drinkaware's chief executive, said: "We can say that we have started to see some of the 'green shoots' of behaviour change. When you add in industry support, we have also been able to reach more consumers, more often than in previous years."

Drinkaware's 'Why let good times go bad?' campaign to reduce the acceptability of drunkenness among young adults has motivated the audience to consider drinking differently. Eight out of 10 regular drinkers (680,000) claim to have adopted at least one of the campaign tips and are pacing with soft drinks, drinking more water and eating before drinking. The evaluation also showed that prompted recall of the campaign was 27%, double the industry average, with at least 850,000 regular drinkers seeing the campaign. 'In-kind' support was also up, valued this year at £26.5 million, representing a 39% increase in commitment by industry.

'Excuses', the campaign aimed at 30-45 year old 'increasing risk' drinkers, drove a 31% increase in sign-ups to MyDrinkaware.co.uk, the charity's online drinks tracking tool. Drinkers using the toolreduced consumption from an average of 5 units per day to 3.9 units.

The 'Your Kids and Alcohol' campaign, which encourages parents to speak to their children about alcohol and includes an interactive video, was played more than 190,000 times by parents, and research showed that 44% of parents had conversations with their children about alcohol after seeing the campaign.

Sorek added: "Support from industry generated a media value way beyond the £25 million target for 2011 and we are delighted with the enormous enthusiasm to do even more in 2012. Partnerships offer a fantastic opportunity to boost the visibility of our campaigns. As we look for support reaching adults and parents in 2012 there's now even greater scope for companies to get involved".

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