Recommendations

TAPESTRY was established to tackle some of the problems caused by unrestrained use of the private car, which is acknowledged to be one of the major causes of environmental pollution and fuel consumption throughout the European Union. Many "hard" (or infrastructural) measures have been implemented to provide viable public transport alternatives or to encourage or coerce travellers to relinquish use of the private car and these measures have achieved significant successes. However, they have come up against a number of significant barriers which have suggested that there is a need for more innovative, "softer" solutions to promote the use of public transport and soft transport modes.

TAPESTRY has attempted to address these barriers by researching the role of campaigns in changing attitudes, awareness and behaviour in a broad range of contexts at the local and regional levels across Europe. By campaigns we are not only referring to high profile advertising or mass media promotions, but also to any initiative which sets out to use a communications initiative to bring about change. In TAPESTRY this includes a wide range of initiatives including approaches as diverse as school-based programmes, competitions, displays, individualised marketing and school visits.

This document is intended to advise policy makers about the role that best practice in campaign targeting, design and implementation can play in meeting their strategic transport and environmental objectives.

The document is split into three distinct parts. Part one provides an introduction to the premise of the project and provides a brief summary of the case study results. In particular the results of the TAPESTRY case studies have provided some important learning:

  • Campaigns can lead to an increase in the use of sustainable modes (such as public transport). Four TAPESTRY campaigns led to an increase in public transport use.
  • Campaigns can lead to a decrease in car use. Five TAPESTRY campaigns led to a decrease in car use.
  • Communications campaigns can achieve high levels of awareness within the target community.
  • Campaigns can achieve significant shifts in attitudes. Overall there were more positive than negative changes
  • Some attitudinal shifts are more easily achieved by campaigns. For example few campaigns were able to alter people's perceptions about the cost of bus travel, while they were able to change opinions about personal security or comfort
  • Changing levels of awareness, attitudes and perceptions, prior to behavioural change are valid and useful campaign objectives. Some campaigns demonstrated attitudinal changes without behaviour change
  • Ensuring that the campaign materials and design attract the interest of the target group can achieve better results
  • In general the campaigns with better evaluation frameworks provided more conclusive results.

Within part two, the main policy recommendations section, we briefly summarise the policy situation within which TAPESTRY fits and then set out a framework which shows the role of the TAPESTRY outputs in linking strategic policy considerations with local case studies and with future campaign practices. The development of the framework highlights existing gaps leading to proposals for a series of options for future actions and research work. These future options will build upon the work started within TAPESTRY and link into EU, national and other policy directions.

The benefits of communication actions are potentially significant in many ways. Campaigns have a role to play both in improving the efficiency of existing infrastructure and ensuring that new strategies meet their objectives. Although the overall conclusions are positive in showing that campaigns can have positive effects it is important to be realistic about what to expect. In particular before setting out on this route the campaign manager or initiator must realise that the impact of an individual campaign is time limited, specific and dependent on proper targeting. Therefore there are important contextual lessons to be learned:

  • Ensure campaigns are implemented in a well-structured overall framework where top-level messages support more detailed initiatives at the local level. This involves keeping objectives and communication lines simple, well targeted and non-contradictory. Any perception of mixed messages in the target group can destroy the desired effect.
  • Ensure a campaign programme which develops the message in a structured way. This will involve understanding the opinions of your target audience before designing the campaign and tracking their opinions through every stage to ensure each step is implemented at an appropriate stage. Be prepared to repeat or redesign individual stages if progress is slower than expected or desired.
  • Be prepared for a campaign programme to take time to achieve results, both for each individual step on the journey from raising awareness to changing behaviour and for the achievement of overall goals. Remember that continual reinforcement is essential.

Although we believe the results of TAPESTRY show that campaign programmes have a valuable role to play, it is also important not over-rely on them. Campaigns can only work if the proposed change is credible in the view of the target audience. This is a key reason why targeting is important in all contexts.

Finally part three contains a short set of recommendations based on the results of TAPESTRY and provides a menu of measures showing how the recommendations could be put into action.

All mentioned parts can be downloaded in pdf format:

 

 

  

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