The Scottish Government

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ISBN 0 7559 2839 3 (Web only publication)

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Campaign overview

• The Don't Give Fire a Home campaign was launched in September 2003. The campaign aims to help reduce fire deaths and injuries in Scotland through promoting a greater public awareness of the dangers of domestic fire.
• Three waves of quantitative research have been conducted to evaluate the advertising element of the campaign:
• • Wave 1: Pre-campaign benchmarking research in August 2003 sought to examine public attitudes in terms of complacency regarding fire safety in the home, prior to advertising.
  • Wave 2: Post-campaign research in April 2004 continued to examine public attitudes in terms of complacency regarding fire safety in the home and also evaluated awareness and understanding of Phase 1 of the fire safety advertising campaign among the target audience (the adult population). It was conducted using a telephone omnibus approach.
  • Wave 3: The latest wave of post-campaign research in April 2005 uses the same aims to evaluate Phase 2 of the campaign. It was conducted using an in-home omnibus and included visual stimulus materials from the advertising.

Highlights

• There was a slight increase in the proportion of respondents who spontaneously recalled seeing advertising related to fire safety (35% in Wave 2 compared to 40% in Wave 3). It should be noted that Phase 2 of the campaign had more limited coverage than Phase 1. The campaign was only aired on Channel 4 and 5 due to difficulties with changes in Scottish Executive media contracts.
• With the introduction of visual stimulus materials in this wave, it was shown that 22% of the total sample had specifically seen a 'Don't Give Fire A Home' advert.
• The campaign used the message 'Don't Give Fire a Home', which has also been adopted by the fire brigades. At this latest wave, 35% of those who had seen the advertising spontaneously mentioned this campaign message when asked to recall the main messages of the advertising.
• At Wave 3, 52% either agreed or agreed strongly to the statement 'I don't think my home is at risk from fire'. At Wave 2, 79% felt that their home is not very or not at all at risk from fire.
• Overall, the issue of complacency persists. For example, 46% agreed to the statement: 'I sometimes leave electrical appliances on overnight or when I go out'.
• Presence of smoke alarms remained at 95% across both waves.

Implications

• The reports indicate that attitudes towards fire safety are entrenched in that a majority do not believe their home is at risk.
• In addressing these perceptions, the message with the highest spontaneous recall was the 'Don't Give Fire a Home' slogan. Future campaigns could therefore harness this awareness.
• The research indicates that the campaign message was more clearly communicated in the Candles advert rather than the Mobile Phone advert. It was seen to be more engaging as it provides a representation of imminent danger at the conclusion of the advert. This should be kept in mind for future creative development to help trigger a re-assessment of risk.