Keep It Tame: Promoting Respect Online: Safe and Well Online Pilot Study: Evaluating the Design, Engagement and Impact of a Social Marketing Approach Aimed at 12 to 18 Year Olds

Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviours that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good. As a result, there is much interest in the role of online campaigns in promoting safety and wellbeing amongst young people. Whilst industry-informed evidence exists in relation to any campaign’s reach and impact, there is limited evidence in relation to the efficacy of these approaches for actual attitude and behaviour change. This is due in part to the complexity of the interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches required to measure and test change through online contexts. Innovative methodologies—as required for youth-centred campaign design and development—exacerbate that complexity, particularly when working ethically online with minors who require informed parental consent to participate. Moreover, there are theoretical and methodological challenges associated with mapping/tracking online engagement and determining subsequent attitudinal and behavioural change. Significant advances in the science of impact evaluation are needed in order to bridge offline research standards with digital practices and data collection. To address these challenges, the Safe and Well Online project brought together researchers, digital strategists, young people, creative agencies and industry partners to specifically examine how online social marketing-styled campaigns could address attitudes and behaviours which could compromise young people’s safety and cause harm. This report describes the Year One Pilot Study processes, and articulates findings from the major project components designed to address these challenges noted above (See Figure 1). Specifically, the pilot study tested the campaign research and development process involving participatory design with young people and sector partners, and the efficacy and practicality of conducting a longitudinal, randomised control trial online with minors, including ways of linking survey data to campaign data. Each sub-study comprehensively considered the ethical requirements of conducting online research with minors in school settings. The theoretical and methodological framework for measuring campaign engagement and efficacy (Sub-studies 3, 4 and 5) drew on the Model of Goal-Directed Behaviour (MGB) (Perugini & Bagozzi 2001) and Nudge Theory (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008)