The Scottish Government

Listen

ISBN 0 7559 1159 8 (Web only publication)

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Campaign overview

• The "Don't Let Drink Spoil a Good Night Out" campaign is part of the continuing Scottish Executive commitment to raise awareness of the dangers of binge drinking amongst young adults in Scotland. Alcohol misuse is calculated to cost Scotland at least £1 billion per annum, with young drinkers' binge drinking at unprecedented levels. This research tracked the impact of advertising activity that ran between November and December 2003.
• The "Don't Let Drink Spoil a Good Night Out" poster / radio work featured drinkers who are seriously impaired due to binge drinking to get people to take responsibility for their actions and behaviour when drinking alcohol; raise awareness of the potential costs of binge drinking; and encourage more moderate drinking.
• This work used bright posters on prominent sites, along with radio advertising as the key advertising channels. The campaign also used washroom panels in pubs and clubs, limited tactical press and editorial support.
• Prior to this 2003 campaign, the Alcohol Binge Drinking Campaign had used television advertising. This change in strategy, to move from TV to radio, was as a result of a reduced budget and presented a challenge given the need to communicate at a national level to an audience resistant to change.

Highlights

• Main findings of the post-campaign evaluation included that the recall of the advertising was very high at 79% amongst 18-20 year olds, with high levels amongst other target age groups (74% and 68%).
• The design of the poster adverts was easy to understand (agreed by 95% of all respondents) and grabs the attention (agreed by 90%). Over 75% of the target audience felt that the message was targeted at them and this rose to 86% if the respondent considered themselves a heavier drinker. Finally 61% of the target audience said the advertising made them think about their own behaviour.

Implications

• This high awareness and clear communication were significant given the reduced budget and point towards the success of strong advert design and appropriate / tactical media buying. Editorial and PR work further enhanced the campaign creating local relevance and raising awareness.