State of the Art

The State of the Art Review is one of the main components of TAPESTRY workpackage 2.  The aim of the “State-of-the-Art Review” is to provide a common understanding to all TAPESTRY partners and to third parties about the behavioural and attitudinal concepts, the factors affecting them and the relationships between theory and practice.  To fulfil this task, WP2 partners concentrated on gathering information, key lessons and recommendations from previous and ongoing EU and non-EU research projects and studies related to travel, health and environment awareness. Concepts of travel, environment and health awareness campaigns have been explored and analysed.

The theoretical background and the most important issues related to designing and implementing campaigns presented in this report have been based mainly on bibliographical research. Moreover, this report includes the findings of an in-depth review of the two completed EU projects on which TAPESTRY builds,  INPHORMM and CAMPARIE, as well as of some other related projects.

This report also attempts to review  the most important lessons learnt from the projects, studies and articles . The  review focuses on are the adaptation of models of behaviour, developing a communication strategy and defining the target groups of a campaign. The two most important models of behaviour employed and adapted by several projects and studies, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Stages of the Change model, are presented and analysed, so that the reader – and the candidate planner or campaign launcher – can select the one best fit to their needs. Understanding the stages of change of an individual and of a group is quite important for the success of a programme or a campaign.

Details regarding the implementation of communication strategies and campaign key elements are also presented. Finally, the significance of designing a campaign in the correct manner for a certain objective is stressed, by defining and explaining the campaign key elements.

Another point covered by this report is the integration of campaigns with other policies. Addressing, for example, safety issues when campaigning for cycling is necessary and should be considered by a national or local policy plan. Similarly, the need for developing partnerships is also vital.

Experience gathered within the projects reviewed is combined to produce a set of recommendations on assessment and monitoring processes. This brief review has highlighted the lack of research to date on a comprehensive assessment framework for campaigns and communications programmes. This report provides current knowledge of monitoring and assessment issues including general guidelines on a step by step approach as they have been identified by some of the completed research projects. It also pinpoints the necessity to measure the attitudinal changes which are precursors to behaviour and briefly presents some crucial points of attitudinal measurement.

Moreover, this State-of-the-Art Review report brings in knowledge about the practical implementation of  awareness and other promotion campaigns and communication programmes  in most EU countries, as well in some non-EU countries. Furthermore, it provides answers to questions such as the way in which the campaigns are used at each country, the topics they cover, the groups they target, and who implemented them. In addition, it reports some common key elements that contribute by far to the success or failure of an initiative and gives some practical examples of successes and failures. It also aims to provide information about lessons learnt to date. Finally existing gaps in these countries or regions, concerning this topic are highlighted. The reader can identify differences and similarities among the European states as well as among EU and other countries covered by national reports.

The report ends by pinpointing the main conclusions derived from all the above material. The conclusions aim to help readers, and in particular the TAPESTRY partners, to identify the parts of this review that are of most interest to them. They also intend to provide a common understanding of campaign issues, communication programmes, and monitoring and assessment in view of future TAPESTRY outcomes.

The 2nd TAPESTRY Thematic Workshop "Design, Implementation, Management, Assessment and Tracking of Campaigns" has been held in Munich on the 2nd of June 2002. Available is a short summary or the full report (pdf, 849kb).

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