Using transit advertising to improve public engagement with social issues

Abstract

Out-of-home advertising has the potential to facilitate informal consumer learning about important societal issues. To test this idea, the authors developed an in-market, 14-month transit advertising campaign to educate commuters about climate change and influence attitudes and beliefs on the issue. A unique brand identity, fully functioning website, Facebook page, and Twitter account were created to increase the legitimacy of the campaign. Study results find that the campaign was successful in changing climate change beliefs, increasing optimism about climate change mitigation, and driving commuters to the website where additional information about climate change could be found. Beyond increasing our understanding of social advertising, the study also broadens our understanding of how out-of-home advertising works to increase brand and ad recognition and influence behavior over time and in a naturalistic environment. Ad design and execution strategies are offered to improve the persuasive impact of both out-of-home advertising and informal education through social advertising campaigns.

Keywords:

• Out-of-home advertising
• social advertising
• ad variation
• transit advertising
• climate change
• beliefs
• recognition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Table 2. Sample descriptive statistics.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the National Science Foundation for the research grant (No. 1223246) that funded the development and execution of this project.

Notes on contributors

Rick T. Wilson

Rick T. Wilson, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Marketing at Texas State University. His research interests include out-of-home advertising, place branding, investment promotion, and creativity in advertising. Dr. Wilson's research has been published in journals such as the International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and Journal of International Marketing. Before becoming a professor, he worked in the fields of marketing and international business for 12 years as a senior product manager in the U.S. and Europe for AT&T, Vodafone Group, and TelePacific Communications.

Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier

Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Research and Evaluation in the College of Education and co-director of the Center for Program Evaluation at UMass Lowell. Her research interests lie in learning theory, informal education and educational program evaluation. She has been PI or co-PI on numerous federal and state funded grants. She is a cognitive psychologist by training and has been teaching educational psychology and social science research courses for over 20 years.

David S. Lustick

David S. Lustick, Ph.D., was an Associate Professor in the College of Education University of Massachusetts Lowell. He received his doctorate in Teaching, Learning, and Policy from Michigan State University. Deceased.

Robert F. Chen

Robert F. (Bob) Chen is a professor and the Interim Dean of the School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He received his A.B. from Harvard University in Chemistry and Physics and his Ph.D. in Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he has remained at the University of Massachusetts Boston since 1993. His research interests include carbon cycling in coastal waters, contaminants in urban harbors, and the application of coastal sensor networks to societal needs. He is also dedicated to ocean and environmental science education and outreach at the local, national and international levels. He led the Watershed-Integrated Sciences Partnership, COSEE OCEAN, Boston Science Partnership, Boston Energy in Science Teaching, and NSF IGERT Coasts and Communities projects. He has worked on ‘Informal Science Education includes the Innovative Engagement: A Mass Transit Model for Informal Science Learning’ and ‘Cool Science: Art as a Vehicle for Intergenerational Learning.’ He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles in the area of coastal observations, carbon cycling, contaminant distribution and fate, and environmental education.