Strategic advertising of online news articles as an intervention to influence wildlife product consumers

Abstract

Changing human behavior is essential for biodiversity conservation, but robust approaches for large scale change are needed. Concepts like repeat message exposure and social reinforcement, as well as mechanisms like online news coverage and targeted advertisements, are currently used by private and public sectors, and could prove powerful for conservation. Thus, to explore their potential in influencing wildlife consumption, we used online advertisements through Facebook, Google, and Outbrain, to promote news articles discussing the use of a Critically Endangered antelope (the Saiga tatarica) as a traditional Chinese medicine in Singapore. Our message, tailored to middle-aged Chinese Singaporean women, framed saiga horn products as being no longer socially endorsed. Through advert performance and in-depth analyses of Facebook user engagement, we assessed audience response. Our message pervaded Singapore's online media (e.g., our adverts were shown almost five million times; and the story ran on seven news outlets), and resulted in widespread desirable audience responses (e.g., 63% of Facebook users' engagements included identifiably positive features like calls for public action to reduce saiga horn consumption, anger at having unknowingly used a Critically Endangered species, and self-pledges to no longer use it; only 13% of engagements included identifiably negative features). This work shows that targeted dissemination of online news articles can have promising results, and may have wide applicability to conservation.

Understanding Traditional Chinese Medicine to strengthen conservation outcomes

“…Research has shown that species conservation awareness can increase the intended willingness of consumers to accept substitutions for medicinal products that are normally derived from wild animals, which could drive social marketing and stakeholder engagement efforts in the future (Liu et al., 2016). Further, in a behaviour change intervention in Singapore, saiga horn consumers learning about the saiga's conservation status through news promotions commonly responded by asking about or sharing CMM substitutes (Doughty et al, 2020).…”

Using theory and evidence to design behaviour change interventions for reducing unsustainable wildlife consumption

“…Using the intervention approach developed through the design process in this text, we carried out the next steps in the intervention: (a) identifying applicable behaviour change techniques; (b) conducting thorough testing of selected technique components; and (c) implementing and evaluating the intervention (Doughty et al., 2020; Doughty et al, in press). These steps enabled us to assess whether the assumptions we had made about these influences on our target audience held, and whether the intervention based on these assumptions did in fact induce a desired change.…”

“…In practice, this approach was then refined into an intervention plan: the use of targeted online advertising to promote news articles about saiga horn in Singapore (Doughty et al., 2020). This plan drew on literature around the influence of repeated message exposure, social reinforcement, and news coverage, as well as a second set of focus groups, where we could test components such as which news outlets our target audience preferred.…”

“…This plan drew on literature around the influence of repeated message exposure, social reinforcement, and news coverage, as well as a second set of focus groups, where we could test components such as which news outlets our target audience preferred. The underlying intervention message was ‘Singaporean researcher and news outlets expose that numerous consumers in Singapore are unknowingly using a Critically Endangered species’ which implied that, based on this ‘new’ information about the source of saiga horn, its usage was no longer socially endorsed (Doughty et al., 2020). An online analysis showed the intervention message pervaded Singaporean media, and garnered largely desirable audience responses (e.g.…”

“…In this manuscript, we lay out the foundational process underpinning the design of a country‐level intervention to influence the behaviour of saiga horn consumers in Singapore (Doughty et al., 2020). The aim of this manuscript is twofold.…”