Social Marketing Conference: Changing Behaviour Through

Communications

30 November 2011

www.charitycomms.org.uk

www.twitter.com/CharityComms

www.facebook.com/CharityComms

Using social marketing to reduce mental health discrimination

Kate Stringer, Communications Manager

Sarah Cohen, Head of Social Marketing

Time to Change

Why does Time to Change need social marketing?

• 9 out of 10 people with mental health problems experience stigma and discrimination in some area of life

• 8 out of 10 have been discriminated against in their personal lives – from family, friends, neighbours, partners, in their social lives or dating

• Nearly three quarters would feel uncomfortable disclosing their diagnosis to a work colleague

• Two thirds say the stigma is as bad as or worse than the illness itself

“ I suddenly got abuse in the streets. The friends that I’d had drifted away, I didn’t leave the house unless it was absolutely necessary. I felt like I never connected with anyone or like they wanted or cared about helping me.”

“It has caused family and friends to drop me.”

Aims for our social marketing campaign

• Change public attitudes towards mental health (5%)• Change the way the public behave towards people

with mental health problems (5%)• Now we also need to maintain behaviour change

Insight driven approach

Be clear about the behaviour change you want to see

For Time to Change• First year spent on research &

development• Understanding what discrimination

people experienced and who from• Identifying a clear target audience –

‘subconscious stigmatisers’• What had worked in other

campaigns

Audience-focused

Take time to understand your audience’s attitudes

For Time to Change• Depth interviews• Insights summary guides all campaign

planning • Focus groups to test all concepts and get

the language right

• Evaluation of every campaign burst to check it’s communicating effectively

That’s sad, but it’s not me - stigma is often subconscious

Discrimination? What’s that got to do with mental health?

I wouldn’t want anyone to know

The fear factor

Lack of understanding and information

There’s no connection between my life and mental health problems

Walking on eggshells

Friends are important

Exchange principle

• What will motivate your audience to change?

• What are the barriers?

• How can you help overcome these, or provide a payoff?

For TTC:• Providing knowledge

• Taking away fear and awkwardness• Providing tools and tips for

conversations

Social norms

People don’t want to be out of step or display unacceptable behaviour

For TTC:• Wall of pledges

• 1 in 4 message

• Bringing stigma and discrimination out into the open

Take your audience on a journey – at their pace

Year 2• Getting

discrimination on the agenda

• Providing knowledge

• Creating relevance

Year 3• Encouraging

audience to recognise their own prejudice

Year 4• Driving straight to

action• Modelling ‘good’

behaviour

Watch the It’s time to talk advert here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIArbJULkPA&feature=relmfu

Repeating messages at a local level

Delivering the same messages through national advertising and in local communities is effective

For TTC:• Stakeholders with shared objectives

have helped engage local communities

• Free tools and materials

• Proactive stakeholder engagement• Local roadshows as well as national

advertising

• Allowed partner organisations to adapt and regionalise our artwork

Clear call to action

Be clear what action you want people to take

For TTC:• First year our call to action wasn’t

clear

• Second year – pledging

• Third year – ‘Time to talk’ – drove people straight to clear action in their own lives

Evaluation

• Evaluate attitude change and behaviour change in different ways

• Attitude change – asking the public what they think

• Behaviour change – asking people with mental health problems whether they’re experiencing less discrimination

• Also use traditional market research methods to test how effectively the campaign is communicating

• Also anecdotal evidence of impact– 100% increase in Facebook fans after a campaign burst– People telling us they have felt more able to be open about a

mental health problem or that their family and friends have felt more comfortable talking to them

Lessons learntBe clear about who the campaign is aimed at

• You may have to balance two audiences – those whose attitudes you need to change and those who your charity represents

Lessons learntYou can’t always control your brand

• Social marketing is not about brand awareness

• If the behaviour change you want to see, does it matter if people have heard of you?

• Letting others deliver your messages can be the most effective approach

• Local partners might deliver your message in a different way or get their brand recognised more than yours – but they are still getting the message out

Lessons learntYou can change behaviour without changing attitudes

• We have seen a bigger reduction in discrimination than we have an improvement in attitudes

• Behaviour change has been sustained while attitudes are more volatile

• Be clear what you’re asking people to do, and support them to do it

Lessons learntBehaviour change isn’t linear

• Your audience is not one entity

• People will move through the different stages of behaviour change at different times

• Different groups and communities may need tailored approaches

• Tracking helps you to pick up on what’s working for different groups and adapt accordingly

Thank you