Name of Intervention/ Program
Johnny’s Quest

Background and Situation Analysis
The goal of this campaign was to increase awareness and speak to the harms of driving under the influence of cannabis and liquor. Many adults have the perception that they are still functioning at full capacity after participating in alcohol and cannabis use, some even to the extent of having the perception they become better drivers after using. Rather than taking an authoritative approach to similar social marketing messages crafted by Police services and MADD, our approach was to craft a social marketing message that would engage, spark conversations, and make the message approachable to share with their peer groups.

Priority Audiences(s)
The campaign aired from late November 2023 to early January 2024 to raise awareness and get Albertans to change responsible driving behaviors over the holiday season. The retro-inspired creative was used particularly to capture the attention of adults aged 18-35 to engage in a conversation about impaired driving in an entertaining way.

Behavioral Objectives
The behavioral objective was to encourage responsible driving behaviours and choose alternative modes of transportation when participating in alcohol and cannabis use. A secondary behavioral objective was to discourage Albertans on being a passenger in a vehicle in which the driver has been using alcohol or cannabis.

Description of Strategy/Intervention
The focus of this campaign was to promote responsible driving behavior and educate Albertans on the dangers of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and cannabis. The campaign linked to additional resources, backed by research, for our audience to further educate themselves and use it as conversation starters to advocate for responsible driving amongst their peers.

Implementation
We utilized ad placements across the following social media networks: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The ads directed traffic to a campaign landing page where the similar retro-inspired creative was used as a story telling method to engage users to change their behavior when it comes to responsible driving. Using links to additional resources, our message was backed by research and studies that show the dangers of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of cannabis and alcohol. Rather than choosing to drive while using, our campaign message was to encourage other forms of transportation to stay safe during the holiday season – for drivers, passengers, and others on the road.

Evaluation Methods and Results
The primary objective was to increase awareness of impaired driving when it comes to both cannabis and alcohol. Compared to our recent brand campaigns we doubled the amount of web sessions and increased our CTRs. Although our goal was to maximize impressions, this social marketing campaign generated exceptionally high engagement compared to our typical awareness campaigns on social media platforms, receiving 174 comments and 185 shares. This campaign delivered 4.5M impressions, 616K video views, 43Kclicks, 18.8K website sessions across all platforms.

View Sample

Entry Letter: G