Drinkaware 2016: Midlife men campaign

Reducing alcohol harm amongst midlife men

Ben Butler

Setting the scene

2

Why target midlife men?

8.1million men aged 45-64

2 in 5 have attempted to reduce

their drinking

2 in 5 are managing long standing

health conditions

2 in 5 are aware of alcohol

issues beyond liver disease

1 in 5 think they’ll have

health problems from

alcohol

3,000

died in

2014

1 in 3 are higher risk

drinkers

Getting to know the audience

3

Midlife Risky Drinkers

Insight research (Dr Simon Christmas):

• 42 individual qualitative interviews with men

drinking 30+ units/week

• 18 follow-up interviews including the partners of

the men

Communications strategy research comprising:

• 10 workshops with 59 men

• 15 focus groups with more than 100 men (with

2CV)

Insight research

4

Understanding the audience

5

Their definition of drinking responsibly

To me too much to drink is when it starts affecting your everyday life, when it

means you're not there, you're not putting food on the table for the kids, you're

not feeding the dogs, walking the dogs, doing stuff with the wife, letting people

down, not turning up to work.

When it affects that side of things that's too much to me. [SW08]

…their drinking not viewed as excessive Aware that excessive alcohol causes harm…

SOURCE: Dr Simon Christmas ltd

Routine home drinking

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I could certainly stop drinking during

the week. I’d probably have a couple

at the weekend. [...] It wouldn’t hurt

me really to stop drinking, just say I’m

not going to drink in the week.

[NW03]

[I would cut back] In the week. [...] I

wouldn’t have a drink after work. [...] I will

save my weekend to enjoy myself. I’m

working all week anyway – cut the booze in

the week completely, get on the water, get

the water down you, save myself, recharge

if you like. [WM13]

Identified as the easiest to reduce


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1. Inability to control

Getting the language right Out of control vs. failing to control

I could go without it. But do alcoholics

say that, as well? And I think, obviously,

it’s something that maybe gets into

someone’s head and they just don’t know

when to stop. I’d like to think that I do.

[WM08]

I got into the habit of actually drinking

every night. It was normal, it was

natural. […] And it came to a point

where I was uncomfortable not having

alcohol at some point during the day.

[NW13]

2. Failure to control


What’s going on ‘under the bonnet’?

8

Making the impact of alcohol visible

I can get up in the morning

and function quite happily. I

don’t get hangovers

anymore probably because

I’m too used to it. I guess it’s

sort of shrivelling my liver

but I’m not feeling any ill

effects from it, apart from

getting a beer belly but this

[cycling] is starting to cure

that slowly. [SW14]

Alcohol raises your blood

pressure

Alcohol makes the arteries stiffen and constrict,

pushing up your blood pressure.

This in turn puts a strain on your heart, and increases

the chances of you having a stroke or a heart attack.


9

Giving them something to think about ‘Small changes, big differences’

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

= 49 units

= 35 units

Change in absolute lifetime

risk of death from

alcohol-related disease: 8.3% 14.7% SOURCE: Holmes, J., Angus, C., Buykx, P., Ally, A., Stone, T., Meier, P. and Brennan, A. (2016) Mortality and morbidity risks from alcohol

consumption in the UK, ScHARR, University of Sheffield.

Key findings Insight research

10

1. They have to self–identify. It’s THEM and THEIR drinking.

2. Routine home drinking identified as the easiest to reduce

3. Language must challenge, but not be irrelevant

4. They need to understand what is happening ‘under the hood’

5. Help the audience understand that small changes can make a big difference

An integrated three year campaign

12

Have a little less, feel a lot better

To get: UK males aged 45-64, drinking above the low risk guidelines

To: reduce their routine home drinking

By: Persuading them that small reductions in alcohol can make a big

difference to their health

Starting the conversation

13


Radio & poster advertising Harm areas from 9 May, 2016

Nationwide from Sep 2016

Intervention/ IBA Pilot from Sep 2016

Roll out from April 2017

Drinkaware at work Pilot 2016

Launch from Mar 2017

PR amplification From 9 May, 2016

Digital and mobile

activation From 9 May, 2016

‘Alcohol and men manual’ From Sep 2016

Radio advertising

• Straight talking ads, not lecturing

• Get audience to recognise their routine home drinking

• Driving to website/ pharmacies in September

• Regional accents to aid self-identification

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“Know-it-alls. Nothing worse.

But I’m not going to try and pretend I know everything.

I just want you to have a think about what you drink at home

through the week.

The ‘couple with a takeaway’.

The ‘few in front of the telly’.

The ‘might as well have another’.

Cutting out just a few of those drinks could improve your

health, even lower your blood pressure.

And would you really miss ‘em? Ultimately, it’s your shout.

Have a little less, feel a lot better – see how at

drinkaware.co.uk”

Washroom Posters

ADS:

• Target ads in motorway service station wash rooms

• Male targeted, with dwell time

• Encouraging audience to recognise their routine home drinking

• Emphasising benefits of reduction

• Within harm areas

PROMOTING:

• New website landing page

• Interactive website tool

• Educational health harm videos

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Digital & social media advertising

Digital ads:

• For men aged 45-64

• Targeted banner ads on sport websites

• Smart retargeting to engaged users

Social ads:

• Targeted Facebook ads for men aged 45-64

• Regional targeting within harm areas

• Smart retargeting to engaged users

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Website landing page

17


Features:

• Interactive tool to help individuals assess their weekly drinking & how cutting down can have a positive impact

• 5 ‘under the hood’ videos

• Clear signposting next steps – the app, or relevant support services

Interactive tool – how it works

18


Users enter weekly drinks to find out:

• Units

• Calories

• Risk of death from alcohol-related disease

• Drinking compared to other UK men

By using the slider at the top of the tool, we can show how they can ‘have a little less’ to ‘feel a lot better’ and improve their health.

Metrics change in front of them as they adjust the number of drinks.

IBA: Identification and Brief Advice

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Pharmacy intervention

What is IBA and why pharmacies?

Why is IBA important:

• 1 in 8 drinkers who receive IBA will reduce their drinking to within the lower risk guidelines

• Routine delivery of IBA in primary care is cost-effective and will offer gains in terms of Quality Adjusted Life years (Purshouse et al., 2013)

Why pharmacies?

• Trusted health professionals

• Provide access to target audience

• Attract people not visiting GPs, who may be managing chronic health conditions

• Scalability – Healthy Living Pharmacies putting more emphasis on public health delivered via pharmacies

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Delivering IBA through pharmacies

Local case study evidence

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• Some indicative evidence of effectiveness of IBA in community

pharmacies

• Number of barriers to implementation consistently identified

• In most initiatives interventions fully executed by 2-3

pharmacies

• Pharmacies financially incentivised to deliver schemes

• No consistent training/ guidance for pharmacy staff

• AUDIT–C scratch cards preferred, but no evaluation of this

• Potential facilitators identified

What we want to achieve

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1. Create a pharmacy-based community health intervention

modelled around IBA that is beneficial and attractive to:

• Community pharmacies and staff

• Target audience

• Commissioners

2. Deliver Intervention and Brief Advice in community

pharmacies in three stages:

• Initial pilot phase (Sept 2016 – Feb 2017)

• Wider implementation phase (from Apr 2017 to Feb

2018)

• Self-funded initiative (from March 2018)

Evaluation

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Campaign evaluation

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The evaluation aims to:

• Assess impact and benefits

• Inform campaign and intervention development over the 3 years

• Build evidence to support future sustainable alcohol harm reduction work

Key components include:

• Overall campaign assessment

• Monitoring of traffic to the campaign website and tool

• Process & impact evaluation of the pharmacy alcohol brief advice

intervention

Summary


• An integrated, three year campaign

• Men in the UK aged 45 – 64

• National campaign, up-weighted in targeted alcohol harm areas North West, Yorkshire, East Midlands, Scotland and Wales

• Persuade them that small reductions in alcohol can make a difference to their health

• Reach one in three, with one in five to cut down

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Questions

Drinkaware 2016: Midlife men campaign

Presentations & Public Speaking

Transcript of Drinkaware 2016: Midlife men campaign