Task 1 Media Campaign
The Think! campaign aims to reduce road traffic accidents and raise the overall awareness of the associated hazards. Think! has various media outlets which it uses to reach it's target audience; although they work to decrease driving under the influence and to decrease cycling/motorcycle accidents, a large portion of the campaign's efforts is targeted to protect children. Although many children now possess smart phones, their own social media accounts or computers, it is not very likely that a child would seek out the Think! campaign on their own, because of this, rather than target the information to be taken in directly by the children, they design it to be accessible by them, but to be shown to them by schools and parents.
The think logo was designed to elicit a certain reaction. Painted akin to the cautions and markings seen on roads it conveys the purpose of the organisation. The colour scheme is clear and concise- the yellow is used as it is often the colour used to display cautionary warnings; something to keep in mind and be considered. This again reflects the movement's cause and their motives, wishing to inspire safe road usage and careful pedestrians. I believe this to be a very effective logo, as it is both able to convey the movement's motives and cause as well as the message they wish to get across; this both serves as a form of recognition and a reminder, thus another statement from them to be posted on all works. To reach those using social media, Think! has Facebook and Twitter accounts, these accounts are primarily used to share road safety information and reminders as to what should be avoided whilst driving. It is more likely to be the parents that will follow Think!'s social media, however, I do not feel this is the best way to meet their target audience, the information posted on these accounts is not as informative as their own website, this may be because social media is more of an informal medium, but it does then negate the point of actually following them, it's a lighter take on road safety which is easier to ingest but those who are concerned enough to actively seek out information on road safety would probably rather have the unabridged information. This is reflected in the amount of followers the social media accounts have, it doesn't necessarily mean that the accounts are a bad thing, they do still have a number of followers, though not the perfect way for parents to educate children, nor the type of thing everyone would like to see showing up on their Facebook or Twitter feed, it is a comfortable way for schools to introduce children or parents to the Think! campaign, giving them a way to find the more in depth resources the campaign offers.
The Think! campaign's website offers a much more detailed look at road safety, they have resources targeted for each different hazard with road safety, such as: mobile phones, motorcycles, fatigue, drugs, alcohol, speed, seat belts and a driving on country roads. All of these resources are free for members of the public, the Think! store has downloadable resources for people to print out and put up -most likely better suited for schools and driving instructors to hand out- having these resources free to download and look at aids their goal of raising awareness because there is no barrier holding the information out of reach of people, even those who may not have a means of getting onto the internet, there are flyers, posters and adverts to inform the public, most of these are targeted for those who themselves drive, rather than to educate children. As well as offering information on the various hazards on the road, the website also offers helpful advice on the Think! Education sub-page, this section is made primarily for parents/schools or anyone else who may be aiding children, it offers ways to teach children of varying ages on the dangers, what procedures need to be followed when taking them out -even offering advice on child seats and information on how to properly fit them- and a catalogue which offers ways to order free reflective stickers and road safety equipment.
The website does a much better job of adhering to the campaign's goal and those who are looking for information than the social media. With a much more detailed look on road safety, as well as offering advice and road safety resources for drivers, it has the additional webpage for parents of younger children and additional resources for them. Overall this is a much better resource that the campaign has made available for the public, and it does a much better job at following the goal of the campaign.
The Think! campaign has to use a variety of resources to reach it's target audience as it's quite diverse, they use their website, print outs, adverts, and social media.
The print outs are a good way to introduce newer drivers to the campaign, they can be handed out by driving instructors -who may also give instructions to check out the website- and are often posted around test centres, some pubs will also have print outs on drink driving as Think! aims to partner with pubs to lower the chances of people driving under the influence. Printouts offer a brief introduction to the campaign, directs drivers to additional resources where they can learn more about what Think! does and hits it's target audience directly by being places where new drivers will be.
There are a number of adverts which the Think! campaign uses, there are some that target children, using cartoonish designs, these are usually the hedgehogs or of injured children, used to showcase the dangers of not looking before crossing, as well as a few real life versions to showcase the dangers of train tracks. Drunk driving adverts are usually a bit darker to suit the more mature audience. Regardless of who the advert is made for, it displays the message using shock factor, not shying away from what could happen if people act carelessly around roads, each advert also displays the campaign title and ways to look into it further. These adverts can reach both audiences as they each have their own adverts made for them, they can be seen on television or on the internet, both places children and adults use. It is a good way of getting their campaign goal across as it can easily reach a very large audience and does a good way of showcasing what the campaign works with. ` The think campaign's adverts are very effective, their graphic content is well known for sticking with people, though I feel their message is often overlooked in favour of their video graphics. I do believe that the campaign is effective in terms of their younger audiences and their school visits. However, their social media accounts are seldom updated and are not very involved with their target audiences, granted this is better suited to their overall theme, so it maintains the consistency shown in their materials and their logos, but I do not believe that it works that well enough to get the message across to as wide an audience as they would like. So the campaign is lacking in too many aspects for me to consider it a completely successful campaign.
The Change 4 Life is ran by the Department of Health in Britain, the campaign's goal is to reduce the consumption of unhealthy foods and lower the child obesity rates -an issue which is on the rise- they work alongside the National Health Service. Change 4 Life uses a number of resources to reach it's target audience: families with children aged 5-11, there are games made by the campaign, adverts, leaflets, social media accounts, a website and public events.
The Campaign's logo works to convey the campaign's aims and the area which they operate within, as to allow it to be easily discovered by those concerned with the issues the campaign covers. The campaign itself is targeted towards, primarily, children, and thus the colour scheme works well to fit their target audience and the style of the characters both reflects the campaign's aims and is suitable for the target audience, the font is stylised to be playful and draw the eye of a target audience. This is effective as it elicits the thought of exercise and draws the attention of it's audience. The campaign has a fairly active social media presence, primarily on Facebook and Twitter, their Instagram account falls short on posts, and it is the one with the least followers. Their Twitter and Facebook accounts post similar things: frequent posts regarding how to bake certain healthy treats, packed lunch ideas, exercise tips, seasonal treats (Strawberry [blood] jelly Halloween cups). Each post is quite easily ingested and is designed to be as such, it is not a constant flow of tedious nutritional information, its little reminders and ideas on how to live a more active and healthy lifestyle. This casual approach fits in much better with the standard use of social media, which results in more people following them, it is a good way to reach their target audience as children can have fun with the exercises they post, it's all in a cartoon style, parents will follow it and be able to share it with their children quite easily and it encourages that the two can prepare the meals together.
The more casual, child friendly approach works better on the social media platforms than the harsh, solid fact approach taken by the Think! campaign, this is because social media is designed to be more casual, people do not usually go there as their primary source of information, it can be a way to introduce people to a topic or campaign, using links from their pages to take users to a more detailed site, easily shareable snippets of information to bring the campaign to the attention of the wider audience, this is exactly what the Change 4 Life campaign has done, they use Facebook to advertise upcoming events, ideas for recipes which direct users to their sites and quick exercises. Change 4 Life adheres to the norms of the medium which makes the target audience a lot more likely to engage and actively follow the campaign, meeting the campaigns goals. Whereas the Think! campaign's approach sticks to the campaign's harsher tones, as well as the hard facts, because of this the social media of Think! does not really fit the medium. Even though the Facebook page does have followers the account is less active thank Change 4 Life's and the things they do post is less likely to be the sort of thing the average person would want to see on their social media accounts, even with the people fitting into the target audience of the campaign, they may not follow it because of the medium it is on, Facebook and Twitter are just not suited as places to share detailed information and harsh facts.
Change 4 life's website has resources which can be used by both the children and the parents, it's aesthetic design is themed for children, making it easy for them to understand and look at themselves. The information on the website is focused on activities to be carried out, meals to cook, arranging packed lunch plans and ideas on how to tackle a child's weight. The website contains free resources for parents and children to use and it is easily accessible for ages 5+, which is the campaign's target audience.
Both the website for Think! and Change 4 Life are able to adhere to the needs of both their target audiences, Think! focusing more on the facts and aiming it's primary site towards the drivers themselves and then having an education site for the children and parents of younger children, this works for a website as the people seeking them out will be looking for more of the in depth details that will be on the website, there are various resources available for the users of the website and each user can get a different thing out of their time on the website and it works for all members of their target audience. Change 4 Life has an entirely separate tone from the Think! campaign website, but it works for their audience as their manner of getting their information across is a lot more light-hearted and child friendly.
Change 4 Life has it's own games which can be ordered online or given out at schools for the children to then take home. These games are targeted directly for the children for them to get involved and informed about their own health and about nutrition. The games are to be played with friends or with family, and it is a way of getting the children to take their health into their own hands, this is a perfect way of meeting their target audience as children will want to play games and will want to be involved with something if it can be made fun. The games are a very effective way of promoting the campaign's aims to their target audience, as gamers are far more likely to get younger children involved with something, the games will then, in turn, get the children to talk to their friends about the campaign and get the other children playing the game. This is an area where the Think! campaign falls short, even though they do have adverts made in a cartoon style to work with children, they are targeted to just be shown to children, rather than to get them personally involved. Both of the campaigns go out to schools as well to inform children of their goals, again Change 4 Life has a more involved approach, getting the children to exercise and to play the games, this is a much better way of getting children on board with the campaign's goals. Think! has members of the police go to schools to speak on the dangers of roads and has children go out and be shown how to properly handle road crossing situations. This is a lot more of just talking to the children and it is handled a lot more seriously than Change 4 Life handles these public promotion sessions, it may work for an older audience, however, a more involved approach, such as the one done by Change 4 Life may have more success with the younger children. The C4L campaign is very effective, they distribute a wide range of materials throughout schools in order to reach their target audience, and use their target audience to spread their word better and have interesting, unique adverts which are able to draw interest of all ages. And they manage their social media accounts well, frequently updating them and keeping them up to date.
Links
https://www.nhs.uk/change4life-beta
https://www.facebook.com/change4life
https://twitter.com/change4life
https://www.instagram.com/change4lifeuk/
https://www.facebook.com/THINKroadsafety/
http://think.direct.gov.uk/
https://twitter.com/THINKgovuk
http://think.direct.gov.uk/education/early-years-and-primary/parents/3-to-5s/child-car-seats-and-safety-belts/
The think logo was designed to elicit a certain reaction. Painted akin to the cautions and markings seen on roads it conveys the purpose of the organisation. The colour scheme is clear and concise- the yellow is used as it is often the colour used to display cautionary warnings; something to keep in mind and be considered. This again reflects the movement's cause and their motives, wishing to inspire safe road usage and careful pedestrians. I believe this to be a very effective logo, as it is both able to convey the movement's motives and cause as well as the message they wish to get across; this both serves as a form of recognition and a reminder, thus another statement from them to be posted on all works. To reach those using social media, Think! has Facebook and Twitter accounts, these accounts are primarily used to share road safety information and reminders as to what should be avoided whilst driving. It is more likely to be the parents that will follow Think!'s social media, however, I do not feel this is the best way to meet their target audience, the information posted on these accounts is not as informative as their own website, this may be because social media is more of an informal medium, but it does then negate the point of actually following them, it's a lighter take on road safety which is easier to ingest but those who are concerned enough to actively seek out information on road safety would probably rather have the unabridged information. This is reflected in the amount of followers the social media accounts have, it doesn't necessarily mean that the accounts are a bad thing, they do still have a number of followers, though not the perfect way for parents to educate children, nor the type of thing everyone would like to see showing up on their Facebook or Twitter feed, it is a comfortable way for schools to introduce children or parents to the Think! campaign, giving them a way to find the more in depth resources the campaign offers.
The Think! campaign's website offers a much more detailed look at road safety, they have resources targeted for each different hazard with road safety, such as: mobile phones, motorcycles, fatigue, drugs, alcohol, speed, seat belts and a driving on country roads. All of these resources are free for members of the public, the Think! store has downloadable resources for people to print out and put up -most likely better suited for schools and driving instructors to hand out- having these resources free to download and look at aids their goal of raising awareness because there is no barrier holding the information out of reach of people, even those who may not have a means of getting onto the internet, there are flyers, posters and adverts to inform the public, most of these are targeted for those who themselves drive, rather than to educate children. As well as offering information on the various hazards on the road, the website also offers helpful advice on the Think! Education sub-page, this section is made primarily for parents/schools or anyone else who may be aiding children, it offers ways to teach children of varying ages on the dangers, what procedures need to be followed when taking them out -even offering advice on child seats and information on how to properly fit them- and a catalogue which offers ways to order free reflective stickers and road safety equipment.
The website does a much better job of adhering to the campaign's goal and those who are looking for information than the social media. With a much more detailed look on road safety, as well as offering advice and road safety resources for drivers, it has the additional webpage for parents of younger children and additional resources for them. Overall this is a much better resource that the campaign has made available for the public, and it does a much better job at following the goal of the campaign.
The Think! campaign has to use a variety of resources to reach it's target audience as it's quite diverse, they use their website, print outs, adverts, and social media.
The print outs are a good way to introduce newer drivers to the campaign, they can be handed out by driving instructors -who may also give instructions to check out the website- and are often posted around test centres, some pubs will also have print outs on drink driving as Think! aims to partner with pubs to lower the chances of people driving under the influence. Printouts offer a brief introduction to the campaign, directs drivers to additional resources where they can learn more about what Think! does and hits it's target audience directly by being places where new drivers will be.
There are a number of adverts which the Think! campaign uses, there are some that target children, using cartoonish designs, these are usually the hedgehogs or of injured children, used to showcase the dangers of not looking before crossing, as well as a few real life versions to showcase the dangers of train tracks. Drunk driving adverts are usually a bit darker to suit the more mature audience. Regardless of who the advert is made for, it displays the message using shock factor, not shying away from what could happen if people act carelessly around roads, each advert also displays the campaign title and ways to look into it further. These adverts can reach both audiences as they each have their own adverts made for them, they can be seen on television or on the internet, both places children and adults use. It is a good way of getting their campaign goal across as it can easily reach a very large audience and does a good way of showcasing what the campaign works with. ` The think campaign's adverts are very effective, their graphic content is well known for sticking with people, though I feel their message is often overlooked in favour of their video graphics. I do believe that the campaign is effective in terms of their younger audiences and their school visits. However, their social media accounts are seldom updated and are not very involved with their target audiences, granted this is better suited to their overall theme, so it maintains the consistency shown in their materials and their logos, but I do not believe that it works that well enough to get the message across to as wide an audience as they would like. So the campaign is lacking in too many aspects for me to consider it a completely successful campaign.
The Change 4 Life is ran by the Department of Health in Britain, the campaign's goal is to reduce the consumption of unhealthy foods and lower the child obesity rates -an issue which is on the rise- they work alongside the National Health Service. Change 4 Life uses a number of resources to reach it's target audience: families with children aged 5-11, there are games made by the campaign, adverts, leaflets, social media accounts, a website and public events.
The Campaign's logo works to convey the campaign's aims and the area which they operate within, as to allow it to be easily discovered by those concerned with the issues the campaign covers. The campaign itself is targeted towards, primarily, children, and thus the colour scheme works well to fit their target audience and the style of the characters both reflects the campaign's aims and is suitable for the target audience, the font is stylised to be playful and draw the eye of a target audience. This is effective as it elicits the thought of exercise and draws the attention of it's audience. The campaign has a fairly active social media presence, primarily on Facebook and Twitter, their Instagram account falls short on posts, and it is the one with the least followers. Their Twitter and Facebook accounts post similar things: frequent posts regarding how to bake certain healthy treats, packed lunch ideas, exercise tips, seasonal treats (Strawberry [blood] jelly Halloween cups). Each post is quite easily ingested and is designed to be as such, it is not a constant flow of tedious nutritional information, its little reminders and ideas on how to live a more active and healthy lifestyle. This casual approach fits in much better with the standard use of social media, which results in more people following them, it is a good way to reach their target audience as children can have fun with the exercises they post, it's all in a cartoon style, parents will follow it and be able to share it with their children quite easily and it encourages that the two can prepare the meals together.
The more casual, child friendly approach works better on the social media platforms than the harsh, solid fact approach taken by the Think! campaign, this is because social media is designed to be more casual, people do not usually go there as their primary source of information, it can be a way to introduce people to a topic or campaign, using links from their pages to take users to a more detailed site, easily shareable snippets of information to bring the campaign to the attention of the wider audience, this is exactly what the Change 4 Life campaign has done, they use Facebook to advertise upcoming events, ideas for recipes which direct users to their sites and quick exercises. Change 4 Life adheres to the norms of the medium which makes the target audience a lot more likely to engage and actively follow the campaign, meeting the campaigns goals. Whereas the Think! campaign's approach sticks to the campaign's harsher tones, as well as the hard facts, because of this the social media of Think! does not really fit the medium. Even though the Facebook page does have followers the account is less active thank Change 4 Life's and the things they do post is less likely to be the sort of thing the average person would want to see on their social media accounts, even with the people fitting into the target audience of the campaign, they may not follow it because of the medium it is on, Facebook and Twitter are just not suited as places to share detailed information and harsh facts.
Change 4 life's website has resources which can be used by both the children and the parents, it's aesthetic design is themed for children, making it easy for them to understand and look at themselves. The information on the website is focused on activities to be carried out, meals to cook, arranging packed lunch plans and ideas on how to tackle a child's weight. The website contains free resources for parents and children to use and it is easily accessible for ages 5+, which is the campaign's target audience.
Both the website for Think! and Change 4 Life are able to adhere to the needs of both their target audiences, Think! focusing more on the facts and aiming it's primary site towards the drivers themselves and then having an education site for the children and parents of younger children, this works for a website as the people seeking them out will be looking for more of the in depth details that will be on the website, there are various resources available for the users of the website and each user can get a different thing out of their time on the website and it works for all members of their target audience. Change 4 Life has an entirely separate tone from the Think! campaign website, but it works for their audience as their manner of getting their information across is a lot more light-hearted and child friendly.
Change 4 Life has it's own games which can be ordered online or given out at schools for the children to then take home. These games are targeted directly for the children for them to get involved and informed about their own health and about nutrition. The games are to be played with friends or with family, and it is a way of getting the children to take their health into their own hands, this is a perfect way of meeting their target audience as children will want to play games and will want to be involved with something if it can be made fun. The games are a very effective way of promoting the campaign's aims to their target audience, as gamers are far more likely to get younger children involved with something, the games will then, in turn, get the children to talk to their friends about the campaign and get the other children playing the game. This is an area where the Think! campaign falls short, even though they do have adverts made in a cartoon style to work with children, they are targeted to just be shown to children, rather than to get them personally involved. Both of the campaigns go out to schools as well to inform children of their goals, again Change 4 Life has a more involved approach, getting the children to exercise and to play the games, this is a much better way of getting children on board with the campaign's goals. Think! has members of the police go to schools to speak on the dangers of roads and has children go out and be shown how to properly handle road crossing situations. This is a lot more of just talking to the children and it is handled a lot more seriously than Change 4 Life handles these public promotion sessions, it may work for an older audience, however, a more involved approach, such as the one done by Change 4 Life may have more success with the younger children. The C4L campaign is very effective, they distribute a wide range of materials throughout schools in order to reach their target audience, and use their target audience to spread their word better and have interesting, unique adverts which are able to draw interest of all ages. And they manage their social media accounts well, frequently updating them and keeping them up to date.
Links
https://www.nhs.uk/change4life-beta
https://www.facebook.com/change4life
https://twitter.com/change4life
https://www.instagram.com/change4lifeuk/
https://www.facebook.com/THINKroadsafety/
http://think.direct.gov.uk/
https://twitter.com/THINKgovuk
http://think.direct.gov.uk/education/early-years-and-primary/parents/3-to-5s/child-car-seats-and-safety-belts/
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