Spotlight on Success
4 out of 5: Social Norming at Everglades High School
Jeff Zbar - Advertising & Marketing
August 7, 2006
Campaign addresses teen drinking
Ask, then tell.
To speak to any audience, marketers know to speak that group's language. To
speak to local high schoolers about underage drinking, marketers not only
learned their language, but sought to discover what to say and how to say it.
In its recent "Social Norms" campaign, the Broward County
Commission on Substance Abuse partnered with the Broward County Schools to
create a program that targeted students at Everglades High School in South
Broward. By surveying students first, marketers learned the students'
perceptions about their own and their perceptions regarding their peers' use
of alcohol.
The insights helped marketers create an ongoing pilot alcohol
prevention campaign designed to dissuade alcohol abuse by highlighting how
kids themselves view drinking, said Kathy Koch, president of Ambit Marketing, the Fort Lauderdale-based marketing firm that oversaw the campaign.
The social norms campaign is different from previous anti-drinking
and drugs marketing campaigns. The "This is your brain on drugs" ads, that
showed eggs on a frying pan, for example, now are considered "health terrorism"
campaigns. They frightened kids and adults about the negative health
effects of alcohol or drug use. In essence, they said, "Look at this
horrifying image, then don't do this," Koch said.
Social norms campaigns instead focus on the healthy choices peers
are making. Under such and effort, if the marketing message tells people that
most of their friends don't drink, they'll be more likely to follow that
behavior.
"Traditional campaigns were created to scare them," she said.
"Social norms campaigns are designed to tell them the reality of what with
their friends are doing, and work with the kids to believe and adopt this
healthy behavior through the years."
The campaign started with a survey of students, asking about their
use of alcohol. It also asked about their perceptions of their peers' use of
alcohol. The student survey noted that four out of five students said they do
not drink when hanging out with friends, but they perceived that their friends
do. All surveys were anonymous.
Based on the feedback, students and marketers collaborated on the
marketing statements and how the campaign should look. The students suggested
use of characters. So Ambit created blue and green characters designed not to
look like any ethnic group, but to be representative of all students. The
brand is called "Four out of Five," representing student responses to the
survey. The tagline, created by the students is, "Know what you stand for."
The marketing campaign broke around the campus during the fall of
2005. Media included bracelets, pencils, t-shirts, and a 50-foot poster
displayed at football games and other gatherings. Automated phone calls with
"4 out of 5" messages in one of four native languages (English, Spanish,
Creole and Portuguese) were made to students' homes. Teachers also received
promotional items emblazoned with the message, including Post-It notes and
mugs.
The two-year campaign now enters its second phase, where the goal
is to "get students to believe" their own message, Koch said. On-campus
marketing will continue this school year, based on available budgets. The
campaign likely will include outreach to businesses in surrounding
neighborhoods. Signs, billboards and newspaper ads will inform local business
owners and residents about the campaign, and hopefully draw their
participation into the program, Koch said.
The campaign's ultimate success has been borne from the research.
By learning from students perceptions about their own behavior, the marketing
message was honed to directly speak to those responses. The research and the
social norms approach will help marketers get students to recognize that most
of them don't drink when they hang out with their friends, she said.
Ultimately, the message will be that it's cool not to drink.
"We continue to learn that the most effective campaigns are always
based on research. You may be a great marketer, but if you don't understand
the client and their market, it's not going to work, "she said. "Once they
understand the difference between their misperception that everyone drinks and
the reality, they will begin to change their behavior."
Jeff Zbar is a freelance writer.
Reach him at jeff@jeffzbar.com
To learn more about social norms, you can visit http://www.socialnorms.org/ or http://www.mostofus.org.
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