Campaign for different travel behavior will start in early 2023

Avoid, spread out and travel sustainably. These are the goals of Brainport Bereikbaar. With eleven projects on the street, we ensure that travelers in the Brainport region leave their car at home. But can you also change travel behavior with communication? We investigated this in recent months together with Fama Volat. The short answer: so what!

Practical examples

Ask anyone about a successful campaign to change travel behavior and the answer is probably: the Bob campaign. So yes, changing behavior with communication is possible. Our briefing to Fama Volat was: we want a 'Bob campaign' to get people in Southeast Brabant out of their cars. Not an easy question. Because travel behavior is habitual behavior and to break that you have to come from a good background. A large budget is useful, patience is essential and you have to strike the right chord.

Looking for the incentive

A lot of research has already been done into travel behavior. So desk research became the start of the search for the right thing. Interesting, because the research not only highlighted the opportunities, but also the limitations of a behavioral campaign. For example, we now know that people have for many years found an average of one hour of travel time acceptable. The faster the means of transport or the less traffic on the road, the more distance one will travel. The question is: is there any point in solving traffic jams? Because isn't an almost empty road the biggest incentive to get into your own car?

A world without cars?

Nothing could be further from the truth, we thought. The car's problem is not in traffic jams. Now suppose the car didn't exist. Then the climate would be better, we would save a lot of money on infrastructure, we would have much more (green) living space and we would exercise much more. A completely different world. Who knows, parents might even create more children than fit in the backseat of an average car.

Shoot with live ammunition

So there are more than enough incentives to leave the car at home. But which of these determine our behavior? Time for additional field research. Fama Volat talked to dozens of people from the region. With Brainporters from the city and from the village, with expats, adults and children. To find out which message most encourages you to leave the car at home. And with whom.

The time will come in February 2023

The answer is promising. The Bob-worthy campaign will start in February 2023. Of course, we can't give away exactly what it looks like yet. We would be crazy to ruin our first PR moment already. So subscribe to our newsletter and follow our socials. Then you will definitely be the first to get there!

Would you like to know more about the behavioral campaign? Contact Juul Franssen from Brainport Bereikbaar via juul.franssen@brainportreachbaar.nl.