Many of the most important social issues of our time, from the environment to obesity, relate to the arena of behaviour change. Our expertise supports the effective targeting of resources in public issue campaigns.
While it is important to understand how an above the line advertising campaign works, it is also important to view this in the context of behaviour change, taking people and why they behave the way they do as the starting point, rather than making advertising and how it works the key focus.
Understanding the multiple levers to behaviour change and how they work together informs the campaign strategy and in turn the measures collected to assess success. In addition, research to segment the audience ensures the right groups are targeted and in the most appropriate way. This is an approach that TNS-BMRB has been taking for a number of years now, with qualitative involvement to develop and fully understand the communications and quantitative surveys designed to assess performance against targets, value for money and inform future strategic direction. We work on the most significant, contemporary campaigns, including THINK!, Change4Life, and smoking cessation campaigns.
TNS-BMRB uses the latest thinking in behavioural theory and behavioural economics synthesising the plethora of behavioural models into one simpler model, to underpin a pragmatic, systematic approach to behaviour change research. This is an approach that works in the real world to help clients develop and implement successful behaviour change programmes, and to evaluate the effectiveness of these programmes in a way that makes sense.
A good example of behaviour change in action, utilising all the available levers to change, is Change4Life. A clear behavioural model was developed and tracked through the evaluation, adjusting the model as a result of this evaluation, to develop the strategy for the future. For more information see DH: Change4Life – One Year On .