Understanding for changing: how to design successful social marketing campaigns targeting unsafe behaviours. The experience of the road safety in 10 country project, Russia

Background Social marketing campaigns can be effective in inducing behavioural change. However, to better target the messages, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate motivations behind unsafe behaviours. Aims To describe how social marketing campaigns on seat-belt use and speed control were developed in the Russian Federation under the framework of the project Road Safety in 10 Countries-RS10. Methods The development of the RS10 social marketing campaigns in Russia followed a 9-step process: 1. Defining target audience by consulting existing data sources and reviewing national and international research. 2. Conducting focus groups on target audience. 3. Developing creative concepts, key messages, concepts for marketing material, media strategy. 4. Testing creative concepts, key messages, and scenarios for video and audio material by means of focus groups. 5. Conducting pre-campaign knowledge/attitude/practice-KAP survey to better target the audience and better explore the media use. 6. Developing video/audio clips, outdoor advertisement, tailored gadgets, leaflets. 7. Organising launch event, press conference. 8. Conducting public relation initiatives in connection with strengthened enforcement. 9. Assessing the campaign through KAP measuring the exposure to campaign. Results Both campaigns proved to be successful. The seat-belt campaign led to an increase of 19% of seat-belt use among drivers and 24% among passengers compared to baseline measures. The campaign on speed led to an increase of 9% of compliance among drivers to posted speed limits compared to baseline measures. Significance Understanding which segments of the audience need to be targeted the most and what the contextualised motivations for unsafe behaviours are is key for inducing behavioural change.