drug driving social marketing planning

The awesome team at the New Zealand Drug Foundation work to reduce harm from alcohol and drug use in communities across the country. Drug-affected driving is a potential significant harm. Vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and serious injury for 16-24 year olds in New Zealand, and up to 20% of young people report driving within an hour of cannabis use. It is a significant issue but is not well understood.

Action and Impact

The Drug Foundation commissioned us and our partners at Curative to lead the development of a social marketing plan. We took a participatory and creative approach, aimed at using what and who we knew and adding in fresh ideas. We reviewed the current knowledge of drug driving harm, clarified the target audience and developed behaviour change goals – all alongside a group of great expert advisors. We had group conversations with young people who used cannabis (the target audience) and pulled together two of our special innovation injection sessions to generate new ideas to stimulate behaviour change. The result was a relevant, creative social marketing plan, based on the best evidence available, that allows the Drug Foundation crew to move forward and implement the plan.