NHTSA Form 1521 NHTSA Comm Check Moderators Guide

Focus Group Studies Under Generic Clearance - Moderator’s Guide

OMB Control No. 2127-0682

Expiration Date 8/31/2021

Moderator’s Guide

Focus Groups to Develop

Alcohol-Impaired Driving Prevention Public Service Advertising Campaign

Generic Clearance OMB Control No: 2127-0682 Focus Groups for Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Programs and Activities

INTRODUCTIONS & WARM-UP (5 min)

• Introductions of moderator and participant. Ask respondents to introduce themselves (First name only) and share the basics of who lives in their household and what they do for fun.

CAMPAIGN EXPLORATION (75 min)

Explanation of creative concepts: Moderator to explain to participants that they will be shown advertising concepts that are at an early stage and are not finished advertisements. Participants should use their imaginations and respond to the overall idea presented. Throughout the conversation, the moderator will probe and explore why people respond the way they do.

Moderator Instruction: Present each advertising concept one-at-a-time (use storyboards or other stimulus as a visual aid). Randomly sort the order of the advertising concepts among the different focus groups, so no idea is always shown first or last. Allow participant to read through the concept, mark comments, and then discuss.

Initial thoughts/key takeaways

After initial exposure for each campaign territory, moderator will instruct respondents to write down their initial reaction and the main idea before starting discussion.

• What are your first reactions?

• What is going through your mind as you viewed the idea?

• How does the ad make you feel?

• What does this make you think about? Why do you say that?

• What particularly stood out for you – good or bad?

Message

• What do you think is the main message they want you to walk away with?

• Did you learn anything from this? Was anything surprising? What and why?

• Is there anything unclear or confusing? Visuals or language?

Relevancy/ Believability

• Who do you think this ad is speaking to?

• Does the message ring true?

• Can you personally relate to the message? [If yes] what aspects in particular? [If no] Why not? (Probe: relevance of the buzzed ‘signs’ highlighted in the ad)

Tone

• How would you describe the tone?

• What kind of mood is coming across to you? How does that strike you?

Room for improvement

• If you were going to make one change to this idea to make it stronger, what would it be?

Call-to-action

• Does anything here make you think differently about this issue than you did before? If so, what/why?

• If it hasn’t come up, probe on the end language: Tell me about this line – what does it say to you?

Repeat same questions for each concept

Looking across concepts

• How would you compare/contrast them in terms of …

• key message

• tone

• call to action

• What would you say were the strongest and weakest elements of each approach?

Final Advice (10 minutes)

We’ve looked at a lot of material today. What stuck out to you the most?

• Now that you’ve seen the different ad ideas, which one resonates with you the most and why?

  • Are there any aspects of the other ideas that you would like to see them incorporate into this one?

• Is there anything you’ve seen today that makes you think differently about drinking (being buzzed) and driving? Why?

• Do you have any final advice you would give the ad agency as they build out this idea further? What are some dos and don’ts that would help them to reach someone like you?

NHTSA Form 1521