Informing a policy campaign with emotional impact
The Alzheimer's Society
The Alzheimer’s Society wanted to develop a campaign to reach beyond their usual supporter base, and to engage a broader audience with the issue of social care for people living with dementia and the challenges of the current system.
The campaign needed to achieve an emotional impact – demonstrating the relevance of the issue, revealing some of the financial and emotional implications of the system, and prompting concern and, ultimately, debate among a very specific target audience.
RandallFox was asked to work with the Alzheimer's Society to provide research insight and to develop and test language, tone and triggers for engagement in this area. The work included:
exploring in detail what the target audience already knew or believed about social care
identifying appropriate language and messaging for use in any campaign
revealing the points of communication and optimal tonal approach to prompt emotional engagement and outrage/anger.
RandallFox worked closely with the Alzheimer’s Society to tap into the Society’s existing knowledge about this target audience, and identify facts and points of view for the research to explore. We then developed stimulus that comprised a mix of imagery, case studies, facts/figures and potential mission statements for use in the research.
Through extended focus groups held in politically key marginal areas, we identified what this audience knew or believed about social care, as well as the gaps and misperceptions in their knowledge.
The range of stimulus we had developed helped us to see what elements of communication generated the most significant impact, and we conducted follow up emails/texts a week after the group to understand the potential for longer lasting impact beyond the research context.
We were able to make clear recommendations to the Alzheimer’s Society about the focus, content, tone and potential pitfalls for any future campaign.
“I just wanted to say how grateful and impressed we are with the research and your recommendations. All I’ve heard back is your praise; you really did go the extra mile for us and we are all very appreciative. Our Head of Marketing and Brand said that it was the best qualitative research findings we’ve had at the Society. The results have been key in forming our campaign strategy, and in developing our narrative and marketing propositions.”