Dry January: Participative,

scalable and effective

Tom Smith, director of campaigns

This presentation

• Rationale behind Dry January

• Does it work?

• Campaign growth

• Monetarising

The case for doing something

Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images Matt Cardy/Getty

What needs to happen?

• Most effective measures involve action on price, availability and marketing. Not education.

• But is there something we can do now support people to look at their drinking and change our national conversation?

Insights into alcohol

What do the insights tell us?

• Talk about ‘us’ rather than ‘you’

• Cutting down with others might be easier

• Health benefits important but saving money and losing weight might be more motivating

• An “excuse” to drink less might be helpful

“Light bulb moment”

Social norms

Focus of the campaign

• Positive not negative focus

• Collective experience, so “us” not “you”.

• No blame, no ‘f word’.

• No medical jargon.

Why Dry January?

• Provides a moment of reflection for people who want a break or have concerns

• Provides a cover for those who don’t like the peer pressure of our drinking culture

• Sparks conversations about ‘not drinking’ rather than celebrating drunkenness

– It Works!

Participants

Long term behaviour change

Measured against control

Health and Well-being

•81% of participants say they saved money

•63% of participants got better sleep

•46% of participants lost weight

•85% of participants felt they benefited from the sense of achievement

Why does Dry Jan work?

Experiential participative challenges show behaviour-change promise (e.g. Stoptober)

Dry Jan combines mass media appeal with individual digital communication

Social media based - taps into peer networks

Social contagion - has normalised a behaviour and even turned it into a cultural movement

2016 Reach

#Dryjanuary impressions 180 millionPress Mentions 2085 globally/1549 UK

Facebook likes 43,866Twitter followers 6694

Revenue Generation

• Individual giving

• Local Authority contracts

• Dry January App

• Corporate partnerships

Partner activity

We Support Enhanced Local Authority Activity

Bespoke local evaluation (including outcomes

measures, detailed process evaluation and return

on investment)

Stakeholder engagement (including pre-

campaign insight development and planning)

Merchandise

Corporate support 2016

www.dryjanuary.org.uk

Tom Smith

Acting Director of Campaigns

tsmith@alcoholconcern.org.uk

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14 July 2016

London

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