Evnevich Maria - PhD (economics), associate professor at St. Petersburg State University
Yaburova Dinara - graduate at St. Petersburg State University
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Данные для цитирования: Social advertising and its impact on behavior depending on the message content |
Introduction
Social advertising (also known as public service advertisement or PSA) is part of marketing in the public and social spheres. Accordingly, the level of its development and effectiveness depends on how well marketing in state and public organizations is arranged in the relevant country.
In emerging markets, which include Russia, state marketing is generally not structured enough, and social advertising is often ineffective. It should be understood that due to irrational behavior of individuals, they need to be pushed toward behavior that is “proper” and beneficial for them.
If there is no such "nudging," people often make the wrong choices. Of course, social advertising plays an enormous positive role in such nudging. This article is devoted specifically to the effectiveness of social advertising in Russia (with St. Petersburg as an example).
HISTORY AND LITERATURE OVERVIEW
Social advertising as a tool for influencing human behavior in Russia appeared in the beginning of the XX century. At first, it was strictly politicized and, particularly, contained slogans in support of the Red Army, of Stalin's regime, and served military purposes. Only in the second half of the last century social advertising started referring to the problems of society, and posters dedicated to health, for example, "breastfeed the baby" [12] began to appear. In any event, social advertising was aimed primarily at achieving the goals and interests of the state.
Currently, changes in human behavior and opportunities to influence it have become the object of research for many scientists.
N.Sari examined the effectiveness of regulations such as advertising bans for tobacco products and smoking bans in public places, on the demand for cigarettes and claims that a comprehensive ban immediately decreases smoking by 4.6% [7].
S.H.Sohn and S.Youn examined how different body sizes of a female model – thin, average and large – influenced advertising effectiveness after controlling for social comparison, body mass index and facial attractiveness. Findings indicated that the use of a thin model in advertising was not more effective than using an averaged-bodied model [10].
H.Dixon and others identified and analyzed the content of previously produced and aired adult-targeted public health advertisements (ads) addressing weight, nutrition or physical activity internationally. [1]
N.Siegfried and others supposed that restricting or banning alcohol advertising may reduce exposure to the risk posed by alcohol at the individual and general population level [9].
M.-C.Hsu explored the effectiveness of interactive public service advertising. He suggests that interactive PSAs evoke emotional reactions (sympathy and empathy) and desired advertising effects. Emotional reactions have significant positive impact on establishing moral and ethical principles. Unlike sympathy, empathy has no positive influence on behavioral intensions. [2]
At present, the trend in development of social advertising in Russia is the emergence of interest in social advertising for a large number of stakeholders, and among them are not only the public authorities and political parties, but also social and charitable organizations, mass media, certain groups of entrepreneurs and enterprises.
Regardless of the organizer of social advertising, social advertising can be distinguished from a commercial by following features:
- The main purpose of social advertising is to attract attention and to form a particular social attitude toward social and public issues.
- The target audience of social advertising is the entire society, or its significant part, as opposed to commercial advertising targeting a specific narrow group.
- Social advertising does not lead to commercial gain for the organizers.
- The effect of social advertising is, as a rule, long-term and is not manifested immediately.
- Social advertising aims to change society’s behavioral patterns [11]. The main beneficiaries of social advertising are those to whom it is addressed: these are people who will get more involved in sports, keep parks clean, smoke less or get into less road accidents. Thus, social advertising is one of the tools for compensating behavioral irrationality of individuals.
This article is devoted to analysis of the effectiveness of one of the areas of social advertising actively distributed in major cities in recent years – campaigns promoting compliance with traffic rules and improving politeness on the road.
Analysis of the effectiveness of any advertising is rather complicated, particularly of social advertising, because of its distinctive features. It is difficult to conduct a clear analysis of its effectiveness because of the lack of a commercial component, long-term effect and mismatches between the organizer and beneficiary. In Russia, the situation is complicated by the fact that the market of social advertising is unsettled and involves many players of different degrees of professionalism. Social advertising is placed by the following organizations [6]:
1. Non-profit organizations (hospitals, foundations);
2. Associations (the Advertising Council);
3. State organizations (police, traffic police, tax authorities);
4. Individual companies initiating distribution of social advertising.
According to Vladimir Vainer, director of the Development Fund of Media Projects and Social Programs Gladway, "It is disadvantageous for the advertising industry to raise questions about effectiveness, because the creativity rating of the agency is more important than a real solution of a social problem. Thus, the greatest impact on the real quality of social advertising is exerted by non-profit organizations with a clear mission, connected with the presence and advertising of a specific solution for a social problem".
Advertising projects that we analyze relate to the fourth category – a private initiative of individual companies. The Probok.net project cooperates with advertising agencies that place posters dedicated to traffic rules on billboards by the residual principle.
Most often organizers of social advertising do not make a quantitative evaluation of its effectiveness, because they do not pose a particular task and do not predict a clear effect.
According to Natalia Gladkih, executive director of the Grand Prix Center for Advertising Studies, "It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of social advertising in our country ‘in general.’ And first of all because often the effect for which the advertising communication is created is unclear."
However, the effectiveness of social advertising can be evaluated by the emotional impact on the target audience.
Any advertising uses emotional content of the essential message. The intonation and emotions being exploited are different, but as a rule, from the emotional point of view advertising can be characterized as [8]:
- relaxing
- aggressive
- charming
- calling
- domestic
- intimate
- etc.
Social advertising most often uses shocking or ironic content. The creators of advertising are faced with the decision concerning the tone and intensity of the shock in the advertising message.
The objective of any advertising is to cause certain emotions that would enhance the perception of information by the target audience. Using shocking content is easily explained by economic expediency – to achieve a greater effect at lower cost through the use of more powerful emotions. Shocking advertising is characterized by how simply the desired emotions are evoked, usually fear. Ironic advertising is less widespread because creative messages are generally more difficult to produce. It is easier to cause fear than a smile. That is why social advertising often looks too shocking and provocative.
APPROACH
To study the effect of social advertising, depending on the emotional content of the messages, two projects of advertising campaigns were selected – “Probok.net” (“No traffic jams”) and “Vse Ravno?” (“Indifferent?”).
The first project is the Probok.net expert center. It is a public organization that implements projects dedicated to traffic safety. It is a non-profit project financed by donations and sponsors. Only the advertising partner who places advertisements on available platforms bears the cost of advertising.
For this study, the posters of “Probok.net,” deriding boorish and irrational behavior of drivers, were selected. According to the initiators, the campaign is dedicated to the fight for "drivers’ respect for other road users."
These posters include images of animals – rams. According to the initiators, this image was chosen for the simple reason that in Russia "people tend to call a ‘ram’ those drivers who misbehave on the road."
The project was launched in early 2014. A total of 5 posters with different scenarios were implemented in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities and regions.
The second organization is the “Indifferent?” social advertising project. The project is a social initiative of the largest outdoor advertising operator Russ Outdoor and is carried out jointly with major advertising agencies such as BBDO, ADV, Zuper, Anybodyhome and ULTRABRAND. This project exists since 2010. During this time, campaigns have been implemented in the following areas:
- Health – giving up bad habits and leading a healthy lifestyle;
- Security – following the rules of personal and public safety;
- Society – observance of the norms of behavior in society.
In implementing the campaigns in the given areas, the project collaborated with the Russian Ministry of Health Care in the campaigns titled "Medical examination" and "Get off the hook" (on dropping bad habits), as well as with various charities in other campaigns. The company cooperated only with agencies to implement road safety campaigns. On average, each advertising campaign lasts 3 months. In some cases, advertising mockups may be used longer.
For this study, 6 posters in the field of "safety," namely, road safety, were chosen. The message on each poster is quite serious and negative, including children’s death and injuries. For example, the campaign "Choose the place for your child" is rather stark and depicts a wheelchair and a child safety seat.
This choice is based on the fact that the issue of children’s safety is rather acute. Even despite the fact that the use of child safety seats is compulsory in Russia since 2007, many parents ignore this rule if the travel path is short or because "We were driven around without seats," thus endangering the lives and health of their children. Only a bright, illustrative and stark comparison can affect such parents.
The topic of advertising in the field of traffic safety rules was chosen due to the acute situation on the roads. According to traffic police statistics, in the 5 years from 2010 to 2014 the number of accidents in Russia was about 200,000 per year.
A total of 90% of road accidents in Russia are caused by drivers. This percentage in the country in general for the said 5 years was quite stable. The number of traffic accidents in some cities and regions varies from year to year. The number of accidents caused by drivers violating traffic rules from 2010 to 2014 decreased by 5% in Moscow and by 15% in the Moscow Region. In St. Petersburg, on the contrary, it increased by 20% and in the Leningrad Region by 25%.
The number of accidents involving children under age 16 also varies in different regions. If in Moscow and the Moscow Region the number of accidents involving children in the 5 years decreased by 15%, then in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region it increased by 20%.
The number of road accidents caused by drivers violating traffic rules while driving intoxicated significantly increased. In Russia in general, the increase in these 5 years was 40%, in Moscow – 60%, in the Moscow Region – 150%, in St. Petersburg – 120%, in the Leningrad Region – 60%.
Over the past few years, traffic police together with the government of the Russian Federation have been actively working to reduce the number of severe accidents. Penalties for drunk drivers were toughened (increasing fines, introduction of the concept of repeat violations of traffic rules, increase of the term for revoking a driver license, introduction of criminal liability for drunk driving).
Also, in order to reduce the accident rate, the traffic police together with the authorities of the populated areas of the Russian Federation equipped roads with photo and video cameras for monitoring violations of traffic rules. This helps to reduce the number of accidents caused by speeding.
Moreover, there was a change of the rules regulating the activities of driving schools. As of September 1, 2014, about 75% of driving schools were legally registered and held a license, but did not conduct any training as such in reality, instead simply selling documents required for admission to the traffic police exam. Due to the tightening of legislation in the field of driver training at the beginning of 2015, only 15% of the previous number of driving schools remain.
However, according to statistics, the measures taken are insufficient and the thing needed most is a change in the consciousness of all road users. Social advertising in the sphere of traffic rules is implemented exactly for this purpose. An emotional message of the advertisement affects the consciousness of drivers, and this message must have the greatest possible coverage of the target audience.
For this reason, two hypotheses were formed and checked:
- Social advertising placement is not optimal, not covering the potential audience.
- Message content has impact on the effectiveness of social advertising.
To check the hypotheses, a questionnaire using special online services was conducted in August 2015. A link to the questionnaire was distributed through social networks, including thematic groups dedicated to traffic rules.
A total of 80 people aged 18 to 55 took part in the survey. Some 40% of the respondents have children.
The questionnaire contained questions about the most frequent location of social advertising in the sphere of traffic rules, the possible degree of paying attention to a particular poster, the nature of caused emotions and the effects of social advertising
RESULTS
According to the survey, 57% of the respondents have seen social advertising on billboards, 13% on the Internet, 10% at bus stops, 10% on the TV, 7% on public transport and 4% in newspapers and magazines.
A total of 20% of the respondents could not recall any projects when asked to list all the social advertising projects they remember aimed at observing traffic rules and improving driver behavior on the roads.
Other respondents mentioned projects such as various banners with the images of rams by the Probok.net project, banners on speed limits, caution at railway crossings, child transporting safety, use of child safety seats, etc.
To test the first hypothesis, respondents were asked two questions: "Select all the social projects from the list, with which you are familiar" and "Which of the above advertising would draw your attention?" in relation to 11 banners with the following slogans:
- Choose the place for your child
- Not an angel, but a guardian
- See a crosswalk – slow down
- For a child any place is a place for games
- Texting while driving? The answer will not reach you
- Slow down before a crosswalk
- Dragging along in the left lane when there are free right lanes? Congratulations, you are the King of rams!
- Driving on the shoulder? Excellent:) Now stop and wait until you are allowed back in
- Didn’t give way to a girl? Now she will spoil the evening for her boyfriend
- Occupying an intersection? Well done:) Now, everybody will be stuck
- Turned from the second lane? Cool :) All are waiting to see what else you will do
In the study, the “Indifferent?” advertising campaign project will be classified as shocking advertising (slogans 1-6) and the "Probok.net" is the ironic (slogans 7-11). Picture 1 shows an example of shocking advertising and picture 2 shows ironic advertising. Appendix 1 contains a full list of the poster examined in the study.
Picture 1. Shocking advertisement poster «Сhoose the place for your child»
Picture 2. Ironic advertisement poster «Driving on the shoulder? Excellent:) Now stop and wait until you are allowed back in»
Table 1 contains the data on the awareness of the respondents of a particular poster and the possibility that it would draw their attention.
Table 1
Knowledge and potential for drawing attention to a poster
|
Poster |
Knowledge of the poster, % |
Potential for drawing attention, % |
|
|
Shocking advertisement |
1 |
67 |
67 |
|
2 |
10 |
27 |
|
|
3 |
27 |
50 |
|
|
4 |
0 |
40 |
|
|
5 |
20 |
33 |
|
|
6 |
67 |
47 |
|
|
Average |
32 |
44 |
|
|
Ironic advertisement |
7 |
30 |
37 |
|
8 |
57 |
43 |
|
|
9 |
37 |
27 |
|
|
10 |
60 |
47 |
|
|
11 |
53 |
40 |
|
|
Average |
47 |
39 |
|
While analyzing the data, it should be noted that among the respondents there are those who would pay attention to the advertising, but are not familiar with it.
Ironic advertising in the form of posters with images of rams (7-11) is more popular and more people know it, but at the same time, fewer people would pay attention to it. The situation is opposite with shocking social advertising – people know and remember it less, but it can attract a greater number of people.
Moreover, when analyzing the number of discussions and reviews of advertising with rams in social networks, discussions under news posts about the launch of this campaign, and the relevant photos and videos, it can be concluded that the campaign with rams was discussed several times more often than the posters of the "Indifferent?" project and the comments are both positive and negative.
Thus, the first hypothesis was confirmed: the placement of social advertising is not optimal, and the potential target audience is outside the scope of coverage. This can be explained by the placement of social advertising by the residual principle.
To test the second hypothesis, respondents were asked to characterize each of the 11 posters. The results are given in Table 2.
Table 2
Emotions caused by the poster
|
|
causes a willingness to change behavior, % |
makes you think, % |
aggressive, evokes a desire to disobey, % |
distracts from the road situation, % |
useless and senseless, % |
fun and is recalled in the relevant situation, % |
|
1 |
33 |
57 |
3 |
7 |
|
|
|
2 |
10 |
50 |
|
17 |
20 |
3 |
|
3 |
23 |
57 |
3 |
10 |
7 |
|
|
4 |
20 |
67 |
|
7 |
7 |
|
|
5 |
30 |
50 |
|
10 |
10 |
|
|
6 |
30 |
57 |
|
10 |
3 |
|
|
7 |
10 |
47 |
|
23 |
13 |
7 |
|
8 |
|
27 |
3 |
17 |
13 |
40 |
|
9 |
7 |
13 |
3 |
13 |
20 |
44 |
|
10 |
|
43 |
3 |
10 |
13 |
30 |
|
11 |
|
33 |
|
13 |
23 |
30 |
Picture 3. Effectiveness of 11 posters
We evaluate the effectiveness of each poster summarizing the degree of its direct effect on humans, where the most effective responses are «causes a willingness to change behavior» and «makes you think». The rest of the answers are considered to be ineffective (in the "Other" chart).
All posters are ranged on their ID in descending order of effectiveness.
The results show that shocking advertising (posters numbered 1-6) causes a greater willingness to change behavior and encourages drivers to reflect on their behavior. The number of respondents who think so is 67%. Ironic advertising (posters 7-11), on the other hand, is perceived as fun, meaningless, useless and distracting from the road situation.
Therefore, the second hypothesis was confirmed: message content affects the effectiveness of social advertising. And the shocking advertising impacts on the consciousness of the driver and encourages positive behavior change more than ironic advertising.
Social advertising in general affects social behavior. According to the respondents, 30% began to slow down before crosswalks, 17% were more likely to wear seat belts and are more attentive when it comes to the safety of motorcyclists on the roads, behave on the road more properly (do not make a turn from the second lane, do not enter an occupied intersection, etc. ). A total of 23% of respondents were not affected by social advertising.
CONCLUSION
The research has showed, using social advertising as an example, that issues of development and placement of social advertising requires more attention. The placement of social advertising using the residual principal is not the optimal method. Also, the content of the message should be formed depending on how an individual perceives it in the emotional sense.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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- Website of Probok.net expert center . URL: http://probok.net/
- Website of the “Indifferent?” social advertising project. URL: http://vse-ravno.net