Scottish Government

Domestic Abuse Wave 10 - 2006/07 Post Campaign Evaluation

Campaign overview

• Since 1998, government-led annual advertising campaigns have been conducted to strengthen the view that domestic abuse is totally unacceptable, using the strapline 'Domestic Abuse: there's no excuse'.
• The main objective of the latest phase of the campaign was to raise awareness of the impact of psychological domestic abuse, to communicate the harm that domestic abuse causes and promote the national domestic abuse helpline and web address.
• The target audience for the campaign was the adult population of Scotland.
• This research follows the ninth phase of advertising which took place between 26 December 2006 and 14 January 2007. This latest phase comprised a three week television campaign using the 30 second commercial Reminders which launched in 2005/06, and a four week radio campaign, using Elizabeth and Listener.
• This research project has been conducted to track awareness of the advertising and assess attitudes towards domestic abuse.
• 2006/07 experienced a reduced media spend year on year.

Highlights

• Wave 10 recorded the highest level of combined campaign reach on domestic abuse to date - 79% compared to 78% in wave 9, 72% in wave 8, 70% in wave 7 and 76% in wave 6. (Combined reach being the total figure of those claiming to have seen the TV ad and heard the radio advert.)
• Individually, the level of TV reach was 67% (69% at wave 9) and radio performed particularly well scoring a combined reach of 47% (45% in wave 9). This is a combined figure for the two radio ads aired, Elizabeth and Listener.
• Spontaneous awareness of the campaign has dropped since wave 9 - 70% compared to 78%. Nineteen per cent of those who recalled having seen an advert on the issue of domestic abuse could describe specific aspects of Reminders. This compares to 25% at the previous wave. This can partly be attributed to the decrease in campaign duration (3 weeks compared to 5 weeks) and partly due to the decrease in media budget. It may also be a reflection of how the campaign performed; prompted recall of the TV ad was relatively high (67%), which indicates that the campaign was reaching people but perhaps was not having a long-term residual effect.
• Attitudinally there has been little change over the last two waves of research with the public continuing to agree that domestic abuse is unacceptable. The role of the advertising in this instance has helped to reinforce and maintain these beliefs. Taking this further, those people who were aware of having seen the advertising held stronger attitudes on the subject of domestic abuse compared to those who had not seen any advertising.
• The main message of the campaign (that psychological abuse is as bad as physical abuse) has been one of the strongest and most consistently held beliefs over time. However, the research also shows that there has been a slight softening of attitudes on some measures that are not emphasised in the campaign (mainly around getting help for, and living after abuse).

Implications

• With recognition that there has been no improvement in content recall of the TV commercial from the previous year, it seems likely that an increased media spend behind the campaign would be beneficial. This would allow a more sustained media approach.
• Research suggests that there is a slight softening in attitudes on some measures that are not emphasised in the current campaign, specifically in relation to where women in Scotland can go if they are assaulted by their partner and also that people who escape can go on to make a new life for themselves. There is potential therefore to increase signposting to the helpline and make more use of the website.