A Wee Walk Works Wonders

Ziele/Ideen

This campaign recognised that a large proportion of Scots don’t need face-to-face support or infrastructure change in order to walk more – they simply need gentle encouragement.

Our campaign targeted people that view their car as a cocoon, who tend to drive for most journeys, but are open to the idea of walking more.

We developed three creative concepts, that were presented to the target audience through four focus groups.

Following feedback from these groups, we chose the campaign, “A Wee Walk Works Wonders”. The benefits of walking were highlighted by four cute and colourful characters: a brain (mental health benefits), a heart (physical health benefits), a piggy bank, and a planet (environmental benefits).

People liked:
– Being reminded of the wide-ranging benefits.
– Being given examples of the types of journey they could walk.
– The emphasis on short journeys, meaning it wasn’t just for super-fit people.

Kurzbeschreibung

We developed a media campaign to encourage people to walk for short journeys instead of driving.

We wanted to catch people’s attention, to make them stop and consider if they really needed to drive for short journeys. Ultimately, we wanted people to leave their car at home and make short journeys on foot instead.

In March 2024, we ran a pilot campaign in Renfrewshire, Moray and Aberdeenshire.

Resultate

Independent consultants conducted 761 on-street surveys to assess the campaign’s impact.

Results from the campaign
– 37,000 people had started walking more for short journeys instead of driving as a result of seeing the campaign – that’s 30% of those who had seen the campaign!
– 91% had a better understanding of the benefits of walking for short routine journeys instead of driving.
-86% felt more motivated to walk for short journeys.

The campaign creative, including the strapline, was clearly memorable.
– 12% of people could correctly describe the campaign without prompting.
– Upon prompting, 73% recognised the campaign.
– 91% said the advertising caught their attention.
– 22% of those who had seen the campaign had talked to friends and family about it.

If this behaviour change has been maintained, this will achieve savings of:
– £1.5m/year to local residents
– 2,500 tonnes C/yr

The campaign saved a further £44million/yr from avoiding 15 premature deaths and from carbon savings.