Successful digital campaign on alcohol

Signe Sandfeld Hansen, M.Sc. in Psychology and counsellor & project coordinator, CfDP Alcohol campaigns are often reputed to be difficult to implement successfully, and particularly with young people, there is a general tendency to prefer drinking alcohol than having a dialogue about it. By using CfDP’s online youth club (Cyberhus.dk) as part of the campaign, young people have had the opportunity to communicate across ages and geographic residence, as well as ask questions anonymously to professionals specialising in the use of alcohol. It has also been possible to continually adapt the content of the campaign relative to the collected data from our young people. The opportunity for anonymity helped several young people share unpleasant thoughts or experiences The alcohol campaign was marketed with Facebook ads targeting young people in Denmark, aged 15-20. The ads were shown to 132,000 people, and 12,900 people then clicked the ads. When someone clicked the ad, they were redirected to Cyberhus.dk’s “Secrets” page. “Secrets” invites young people to share a short secret (max 150 characters). The feature is anonymous which means that someone can share unpleasant thoughts or experiences without having to expose themselves. During the period of our campaign, young people were invited to share their secrets on alcohol, and 400 secrets were shared during that period. [caption id="attachment_14494" align="aligncenter" width="634"] Danish secrets shared on Cyberhus.dk[/caption] Apart from Facebook ads and “Secrets”, our campaign has used Cyberhus.dk’s other digital features of counselling: youth blogs, articles, forum and group chats. The articles represented the alcohol-critical part of our presentation and consisted among others of topics such as “harmful consequences of alcohol”, and “where do I turn to when thing go south.” A total of 10 articles were written, and each article linked to our discussion forum. The articles were read 545 times. Group chat – our primary feature of counselling The group chat was our primary function of counselling during the campaign. The group chat is open each Thursday from 6-9 p.m., and normally runs without a specific theme. The group chat gives young people the opportunity to anonymously share experiences and knowledge with each other. A counsellor, who also serves as a moderator, is always present in the group chat. During the campaign (November 2015) 116 young people participated in our group chat which presented various themes related to young people and alcohol. Furthermore, we invited different guest counsellors to our chat who each had knowledge about different aspects on the subject: 5 November Theme: Alcohol for better or worse. Guest counsellor: a young person. 12 November Theme: Myths about alcohol. Mads Uffe Pedersen, Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research. 19 November Theme: Alcohol dependency and abuse. Guest counsellor: Pia Møller, Centre for Alcohol Treatment. 26 November Theme: Alcohol culture of youth. Guest counsellors: Nynne Frederiksen and Anne Sofie Christensen, ”Drunk on Life” campaign. Digital media is an effective tool to communicate information about alcohol to young people The overall results of our campaign (see Danish report below for specific data), support our view that digital media has been an effective tool to communicate information about alcohol to young people, and getting young people to talk about their use of alcohol. Young people themselves have also responded well to the theme and design of our campaign evidenced by comments on our blog and in our group chat. Also, professionals have responded well to our campaign, among others at after-work meetings. Pia Møller Nielsen, alcohol treatment provider and social worker, (participated in our group chat as guest counsellor), says among other things: “Young people are great at encouraging one another, and they create a unique room for reflection where they choose what to contribute, and what to leave aside. It is so important to have a room that is encompassing to who you are, especially when you may not feel comfortable speaking about what is close to your heart, and about that which you may feel is taboo, elsewhere.” Relevant to further develop digital campaigns Centre for Digital Youth Care encourages further development of digital campaigns and advertising, and that they be used for other themes relating to physical and mental health. We also assess that it is relevant to create more initiatives targeting professionals who work with young people in order that this way of creating dialogue is used progressively in areas other than just prevention (e.g., in treatment or counselling). For example, it could be an after-work meeting focusing on the use of digital media as networks of support in order to prevent relapse following treatment, or training courses of how to facilitate digital counselling for vulnerable children and young people. A psychologist, specialising in youth and drugs, was responsible for the content of the campaign, and also functioned as our primary counsellor in the group chat. Centre For Digital Youth Care has collaborated on this campaign with: The Social Work of KFUM (YMCA) – Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research – The Danish Cancer Society, “Drunk on Life” campaign – Centre for Alcohol Treatment]]>