Harmful Drinkers In the East Midlands

Presented by Katharine Holt (DH) & Daniel Pallett (COI)22 April 2023

Who was involved?

The COI (Central Office of Information)The Central Office of Information (COI) is the Government's centre ofexcellence for marketing and communications. COI works withgovernment departments and the public sector to produce informationand behaviour change campaigns, from strategic development,

planning and procurement through to delivery and evaluation.

What did COI offer DH Public Health East Midlands? A team of marcom specialists including: Direct & Relationship Marketing,

regional Client Account Management, regional Public Relations, unique Evaluation (COI Artemis)

The previous learnings and knowledge from the North West pilot Access to our world-class frameworks and in some cases already procured

suppliers (e.g. CMW) Aggregated buying = cost savings and best value for money Campaign management and resource assistance Cross-government and central DH awareness

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What was the East Midlands pilot?

Why the East Midlands?• With a population of over 4 million people and 5 large cities, two of these

cities were in the worst performing in the UK and are part of the spearhead areas. ( They receive £200k to combat this problem and accelerating their improvements to drive down alcohol admissions).

• Information from East Midlands Health Observatory ( EMPHO ) indicates that current levels of alcohol harm related hospital admissions are higher than the national average in at least 2 of these cities.

• As a region we were drawn to the North West pilot and the self help booklet route as an alternative intervention.

How did the region work together?• Driven from the East Midlands Alcohol Harm Reduction Board• East Midlands Alcohol Campaign Group worked with PCT’s and other

organisations to ensure alcohol services data was accurate ( for Drink line)• Region funded main content of the regional work, locally PCT’s contributed

additional streams of money for up weight PR work.

An acquisition campaign using the insight from the North West pilot to drive harmful drinkers in the East Midlands to order Your Drinking & You and cut down their drinking to lower risk levels. It combined direct response communications with PR.

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What was the process?

Representatives of the East Midlands visited COI to find out about the evaluation and to discuss ways in which to work together.

Timeline and potential budgets were discussed and agreed. COI Direct & Relationship Marketing proposed using the most successful

messages, creative and channels from the North West Pilot. UTN’s were agreed.

East Midlands met with regional COI team and started working on regional media and creative to add to the mix.

Incumbent alcohol direct marketing agency (CMW) amended creative to add the East Midlands logo.

Regional COI procured relevant agencies. Media planning and buying was achieved using the NW targeting

methodology and COI aggregated buying contracts. Drinkline advisors were briefed. Evaluation via COI Artemis was briefed. Campaign went live (March 09) Campaign evaluated (May 09)

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What was the detail of the campaign?

Direct Marketing & Evaluation

Managed by COI DRM Campaign Management Door Drops National Press Inserts (Daily Mail, Guardian Weekend, You magazine)

Regional Amplification

Managed by COI Regional team Regional Radio ads (Lincs FM, Heart 106, Smooth Radio Regional Press ads (Nottingham Evening Post, Derbyshire Times) Regional PR

Response & Fulfilment

Managed by COI DRM Campaign Management Drinkline (calls, coupons and fulfilment of website orders)

Evaluation

Managed by COI DRM Campaign Management COI Artemis 6

What did it look like?

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Evaluation Method

COI Artemis

This is a response analysis tool developed and managed by the COI

specifically to analyse government communications campaigns. At it’s

heart is the categorisation of response based on the quality and level of

engagement of that response. For future planning it allows for cross

campaign comparison and joint learning's; evidence base for strategic

development; clear direction on what creative's are working and what

media channels are delivering.

NB: Although all parties would have also liked to add research to this

evaluation mix there was a limit of time and budget.

• The East Midlands intend to undertake more extensive research beyond Artermis that examines behavioural success with those respondents who have opted into more research. This will be a separately commissioned piece of work which we will share, once it has been completed. 8

Evaluation Results

The total response to the campaign was slightly less than the North west pilot (4,210 responders).

But, conversion was more effective and proportionally more ordered the booklet (2,048).

Coupons remained the best performing response mechanism for driving booklet orders.

Inserts (like the NW) were the most cost effective channel (£14 CPR – Total response)

The overall CPR for driving an active response was higher than the NW pilot (£82 versus £52). But it compared well on health averages.

It was impossible to measure the impact of the regional uplift work (PR, radio, press ads) due to not using unique telephone numbers.

The website didn’t perform well in generating booklet orders. (Central DH are currently making usability improvements).

The responders were slightly higher demographic (more ABC). The project would benefit from some further qualitative research to

interrogate the findings further.9