‘ Have a Word with Yourself ’
to prevent head injuries
among youth in Canada
Kevin La Freniere, Preventable
Jayne Morrish, Parachute
November 6, 2013
The Issue
•
Injury is the leading cause of death for Canadian children and youth
•
Traumatic brain and spinal injuries are among the most devastating, with 3050% of severe brain injuries resulting in death
•
An estimated 65% of sport-related traumatic brain injuries occur among
children aged 5-18 years old
2
The Project
•
A grant was provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada in line with the
Active and Safety Injury Prevention Initiative
•
The objective of this project is to raise awareness about helmet safety for
youth ages 13 to 19
•
Sports and recreational activities targeted include cycling, mountain biking,
skateboarding, skiing and snowboarding
3
Preventable
•
Provides a turnkey social marketing campaign platform which has been
researched, tested and implemented in a few provinces across Canada
•
Preventable was the sponsor for this project and was responsible for:
o
Key message development
o
Development of campaign creatives
o
Dissemination of materials
o
Website development
o
Social media contest development and hosting
o
Engaging the community of private, public and injury prevention partners
o
Social media outreach
o
Management of the project scope, deliverables and budget
4
Parachute
•
Parachute was the lead deployment partner across Canada leveraging its
existing network of over one hundred schools through its ‘No Regrets’
program
•
Parachute was instrumental in training the youth leaders and teachers, and
supporting on the ground activities in targeted schools
•
Parachute worked with its partners to help promote this campaign
•
Parachute also helped to conduct the focus groups, surveys and analyzed
results as part the evaluation component for this project
5
Campaign Reach
Ten secondary schools from five Canadian provinces were recruited to participate
in this campaign (included a French speaking school, a First Nations Community
School and schools in both rural and urban centres)
St. Albert HS, St. Albert
Ascension Collegiate,
Bay Roberts
King George Secondary, Van
Bedford Road HS, Saskatoon
Gladstone Secondary,
Van
Muskoday HS, Muskoday
Kincaid Central,
Kincaid
Chippewa Secondary,
North Bay
Stanley HS,
Stanley
Hammarskjold HS,
Thunder Bay
John Diefenbaker HS,
Hanover
Northern Secondary,
Toronto
6
Website
development
Local Helmet
Safety
activities
Social Media
activities
Training
sessions
Local Helmet
Safety
activities
Social Media
activities
Focus groups
Measure and Evaluate
Materials
design and
production
Training
sessions
Engage our partners
Key message
testing
Engage our target audience
Design campaign elements
Project Approach
Surveys
Engagement
statistics
Dissemination
statistics
7
Design Campaign Elements: Testing
• This campaign leveraged Preventable’s existing social marketing campaign
platform to design activities to raise awareness about helmet safety
• Parachute drafted a problem-focused questionnaire to help understand:


The participation rate, popularity of the 5 targeted activities, perceived
helmet use in these sports, and perceived risks involved in these sports
To understand the attractiveness and effectiveness of Preventable’s
campaign messages (3 options provided) and the likelihood that these
messages would encourage youth to wear a helmet while engaging in the 5
targeted activities
• Through focus group activities and discussions with Parachute’s youth advisor
team, the key message for the campaign was finalized
8
Design Campaign Elements: Production
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Posters
T-shirts
Toolkit
Stickers
Bookmarks
Hair combs
Frisbee
9
Design Campaign Elements: Website
10
Engage our audience: Training
• Trained 80 leaders and 10 teachers/advisors through face-to-face and
online/webinar sessions to be ambassadors for this campaign
• Leaders were provided with a toolkit and boost box containing fact sheets,
instructions and collateral material to promote helmet safety awareness
• Leaders were asked to prepare and submit a detailed plan of activities they
intended to implement
• Parachute and Preventable staff provided support to youth leaders and
teachers throughout the campaign, and conducted site visits and helped
engage local media as appropriate
11
Engage our audience: Local activities
Activities to raise awareness about helmet safety were organized by students and
included flash mobs.
12
Engage our audience: Local activities
Bicycle races
School assembly sessions
Information booths
Speaker sessions
13
Engage our audience: Social Media
Many youth told us that they did not want to wear a helmet as it messes up their
hair. Following in the footsteps of a successful “bad hair” campaign in Nova Scotia,
Preventable ran a national social media contest called ‘Mess Your Hair, Not Your
Head’ to ‘reward’ helmet wearers.
81 submissions were received
across Canada and drove website
traffic to as high as 4,500 hits.
200 contest posters were
distributed and 500 fact sheets
were downloaded.
14
Engage our partners
15
Measure and Evaluate
Focus Groups
•
Youth leaders and
students consulted
from 5 Canadian high
schools
•
Students ranged from
grades 8 to 12
•
The average
participant age was
15
Surveys
•
•
700 students
surveyed from high
schools in Ontario and
Newfoundland and
Labrador before and
after the campaign
launch
91% response rate
for the survey
Engagement
Statistics
Dissemination
Statistics
•
80 youth leaders and
10 teachers trained
•
Website hits reached
4,500
•
130 stakeholders
contacted to help
cross-promote the
campaign
•
100 visitors to the
website from 13
different countries
Local media coverage
in Ontario and
Saskatchewan
•
•
800 fact sheets
downloaded/
distributed
Cross-promotion
through blogs and
newsletters to over
1,000 people
•
•
200 contest posters
distributed
16
Success Drivers

Strong community of national partners

Parachute as an expert deployment partner

Researched and tested campaign platform

Educated and empowered youth leaders to be ambassadors

Turnkey production of creative elements

Nimble teams with strong partnership focus

Campaign elements that resonated for the target audience
17
Thank You
For further information,
please contact:
[email protected]