ATTRACTIVE - Particularly where individuals are
expected to make an effort to engage with educational
information, it is essential that the information is
attractive. For online approaches, images and (short)
videos do this best¹, so long as they are in a mobile-
friendly format. Always put captions or subtitles on
videos as evidence suggests that up to 85% of people
listen in silence². Make non-use of a mobile phone
appear more attractive by communicating the benefits
an individual may experience as a result of changing
their behaviour in the way we would like them to³.
This includes getting home safely, or avoiding higher
insurance premiums, for example.
Another aspect of ‘attractiveness’ we can make the
most of is people’s desire to be part of the ‘in-crowd’
(as we suggested on p64). People naturally and
instinctively want to be part of the majority (this is called
the ‘social norms’ approach from the behaviour change
literature) and we can use this to our advantage. So
whilst it might be tempting to start your education with
some impactive statements about levels of offending,
resist the implication that this is normal. This won’t
detract from your statistics and examples about the
harm that is caused by the behaviour when it does
occur.
RELEVANT - Information should be relevant to
the individuals targeted to ensure that they do not
deem the information ‘important for others, but not
themselves’. This is where it can be important to clarify
what we mean by ‘use’ of a phone. If people don’t
think what they do is ‘use’ they are unlikely to think our
message is aimed at them.
We can also try to make sure that our audience sees
our activities as relevant to them. Rather than justify
what we do we should show pride, and (where possible)
be clear that the responses we talk about are endorsed
by the public, and often demanded by them. This
approach makes the enforcement of the law relevant to
the audience in terms of the protection it offers them,
rather than being framed as a threat they need to look
out for. So if we change the terms of reference and
imagine our audience as allies, not as potential targets,
then we should find that they begin to mirror that.
A famous face can be an attractive feature of message - just make sure you check out that person’s profile to
make sure they are an appropriate role-model.
¹ Hubspot (nd). 45 visual content marketing statistics you should know in 2018. Available from: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/visual-content-
marketing-strategy
² UScreen (nd). 7 reasons your videos need subtitles. Available from: https://www.uscreen.tv/blog/7-reasons-videos-need-subtitles-infographic/
³ Lewis, I., Watson, B. and White, K.M., 2008. An examination of message-relevant affect in road safety messages: Should road safety advertisements aim to
make us feel good or bad?. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 11(6), pp.403-417.
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