comms2point0 was created 11 years ago to showcase best practice communications and to share insights and learning. This new campaign case study does just that.
by Abigail Britten
We recently launched the ‘Ready to Pass?’ campaign to encourage learner drivers to only take their driving test when they’re ready to pass and be a safe, independent driver.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented waiting times to take a driving test. The average waiting time for a driving test appointment is currently 13.4 weeks, and in areas of Great Britain where demand is highest, the wait is 24 weeks.
The pass rate for the test is low – in January to March 2022 it dropped to 47.1%. This shows that many learners are risking taking the test before they are ready. This results in them failing, losing on average £112 (£62 for the test and 2 lessons at £25 each) and paying to retake it.
The campaign is intended to improve learner drivers’ understanding of their readiness to take their test and nudge them to put their test back if they’re not ready. This will also help to make more tests available for those who are ready.
It aims to increase the driving test pass rate, which will help to reduce waiting times, as fewer people will need a re-test.
It’s the biggest behaviour change campaign that we’ve run at DVSA. I want to take you behind the scenes to show you’ve how it’s been developed so far - and to give you a peek at what we’re looking at next.
So let’s start at the beginning.
The behaviours we are trying to change
In our campaign, we’re trying to stop the harmful behaviours of people:
taking a driving test before they’re ready
wasting driving test appointments by failing to attend, or not bringing the right documents, a suitable car or arriving late
Gathering insight
One of the most critical things we’ve had to do is understand the audience for the campaign – learner drivers. This has included finding out about their:
existing behaviours
intentions
attitudes
use of different communication channels
To do this, we’ve used a mix of:
surveys
interviews with learner drivers
analysing comments on social media
analysing driving test data
desk-based research on the latest communication trends
We’ve also been doing research with the people who influence learner drivers, including their parents and family, and their driving instructors.
And we’ve also been able to use the rich insight from our own driving examiners’ daily experiences. From the questions they’ve asked at internal events, through to the posts they’ve made on our internal Yammer community about their experiences. This has all helped us to enhance our understanding.
It has also helped us build up a good picture of the attitudes, intentions and behaviours of learner drivers. With that insight gathered, the next step was to design communications to start to change the behaviour.
Using a framework to help change behaviour
When we design communications to change behaviour, we use a framework called EAST. It stands for easy, attractive, social and timely.
It means that we try to make our messages ‘EAST’.
Easy
We try and break complex things into more manageable chunks. We limit the number of clicks people need to make to get to the right thing. We try to make changing the behaviour the easy thing to do.
Attractive
We try and make our messages stand out from the crowd. That’s a big challenge when you consider that lots of companies will be paying to get expensive adverts in front of our audience - and we are doing this with no budget.
Social
We try to show how people who have positive behaviours do better when they take their driving test. And we encourage other people who can influence learners (such as their parents and driving instructors) to advance our messages.
Timely
We try and communicate at times when learner drivers will be most receptive. We try and get them to plan and have conversations with their instructor.
Choosing our channels
With our insight, and an idea of the different messages we need to be communicating, we were able to decide which channels to focus on at launch.
GOV.UK campaign website
We created a dedicated campaign website on GOV.UK. This gives us more flexibility than we usually get on GOV.UK to make things very visual (think back to the ‘Attractive’ part of that EAST framework).
And it’s given us the chance to put everything in one place about what it means to be ready to pass and start a lifetime of safe driving.
You can visit the website at www.gov.uk/ready-to-pass.
As we have the email addresses of learner drivers who have booked a driving test, we can send them emails at different points in the lead up to their test.
There are 6 main emails in total. Learner drivers will not necessarily get all 6 – it depends on how far away their test is.
Here’s a summary of when they are sent and what they are about:
1. Importance of learning with a driving instructor and combining it with private practice (sent at 147 to 168 days before the test).
2. Importance of recording the progress they are making learning to drive (sent at 57 to 70 days before the test).
3. Importance of taking mock tests to make sure they are ready (sent at sent at 43 to 56 days before the test).
4. Importance of having a strategy in place to control their nerves when they take the test (sent at 22 to 34 days before the test).
5. Our 5-point checklist to decide if they are ready (sent at 8 to 14 days before the test).
6. Reminder of what to bring on the day, the date, time and address of the test centre (sent at 1 to 7 days before the test).
There is also a message to people with a theory test booked about how to prepare for the test and signposting them to ‘Ready to Pass?’ resources (sent at 34 to 50 days before the theory test).
Breaking it down into these more manageable chunks is the ‘Easy’ part of that EAST framework I mentioned.
We make the emails nice to read and get the big calls to action to stand out - that is the ‘Attractive’ part.
They encourage learner drivers to have conversations with their driving instructor is the ‘Social’ part.
And sending them at relevant points in their learning journey is the ‘Timely’ part.
We have relaunched the DVSA Instagram channel to help us connect with learner drivers and get our campaign messages in front of them.
Research by Ofcom has shown that Instagram is the top mobile app used by those aged 15 to 24. In September 2021, 90% of people aged 15 to 24 who are online visited Instagram.
YouTube
As part of the launch, we also published a campaign launch video on YouTube (as well as Instagram) to further promote the campaign.
We plan to create more content for learners and pre-learners for this channel as part of the campaign.
This is important as 55% of learner drivers are visiting YouTube to find out information about the driving test. This is the third biggest source of information for learners, the first is their driving instructor and the second is our driving test guidance on GOV.UK.
Ready to Pass? Campaign Launch video - YouTube
Evaluating and improving
When we evaluate communication, we always look at 4 things:
inputs – what did we put in, such as number of emails sent, posts published on Instagram
outputs – things like how many people we reach, or how many times our messages are seen
outtakes – things like how many people liked or commented on posts, and whether understanding of the issue increases
outcomes – things like how many people tried to move their test back, what is the pass rate, how many times do driving examiners have to take physical action in the interest of public safety during tests, and how many appointments are being wasted
The campaign has been running for just over a month now. It is still far too early to know if it is starting to provide all the outcomes we want.
But we can start to see some important data. So far we know that:
we have sent 1,400,000 emails
our posts on Instagram have been seen 585,000 times
our posts on Instagram have been engaged with 5,500 times – which means people have either liked them, commented on them or saved the post
our campaign website has been viewed over 60,000 times
4.3% of visitors to the campaign website have tried to move their test back as a result of viewing the site
Over the coming weeks we will continue to monitor all the data we are getting. And as we learn more, we will keep improving. That could be from things as simple as tweaking the wording of an email, right through to launching another channel to reach learner drivers.
We will keep blogging as we go so you can keep up to date and learn as we do.
Abigail Britten is Head of Recovery Communications at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
