Most young people see getting drunk as a right of passage to being a student.
But what if we were to tell you that 70% of students actually would rather not get drunk? That the only reason they do is based on the psychology of ‘social norming’, or put another way – conforming to the crowd. Baaa!
This was one of the findings of a post campaign survey.
Diageo, in association with the NUS, wanted to create a responsible drinking campaign in colleges during the first term (September –December).
This is a key time for students to excess on everything from drink to sex, and often both!
The challenge was not to sound like their dad, which is exactly what 90% of campaigns do. Students do not respond to finger wagging campaigns that preach good behaviour.
So we needed to change the approach. Redefine it.
Based on marketing experience with sexual health (FPA, Brook, Cool Condoms) and youth (18-30, Contiki Holidays), we knew fun is a winner when it comes to selling more responsible ideas. It also gets under the defences and actually engages consumers more, often resulting in discussion.
The radical approach was not to knock drinking but to lead students to a simple conclusion, this really isn’t such a good time.
We created the ONE TOO MANY campaign with a sense of fun.
We created packs of TOO HOT TO HANDLE bread sticks. Each pack contained one super hot stick (laced with chilli). That was fun for everyone one but the poor sod who got the chilli one! (Note, bread soaks up alcohol so slows down the drunk effect.)
We put drunken mirrors in the toilets to simulate what you looked like in a mirror when drunk.
We put full size vinyls on toilet floors of drunken people who have passed out. It was so successful crowds were invading the toilets!
We gave away cameras so you could photograph your friends when drunk – we even developed the film for them. That was embarrassing for some!
It was highly effective for Diageo – over 67% of students (240 sample across 6 campuses) in post campaign research said it had made them think more responsibly about drinking.
