Formative evaluation of a policy-orientated print media campaign

A print media advertising campaign was developed as part ofa media advocacy strategy to support health promotion initiativeswith policy makers and opinion leaders, at a time when majorchanges were being proposed to New Zealand's liquor laws. Athree-part formative evaluation programme was undertaken towardsthe end of the first phase of the campaign to identify the bestcomponents to use in the second phase of the campaign. A quantitativegeneral population survey ascertained advertising recall andnotice taken of the advertising; the focus was on the responsesof higher socio-economic persons. Semi-quatitative studies withstakeholders and high socio-economic status women enabled amore in-depth examination of responses to the advertising. Theresearch identified successful and unsuccessful components ofthe campaign and highlighted the costs involved in not undertakingformative evaluation of the advertising material prior to thecampaign.