Brief Outline
Promote sensible drinking to the over 40s to reduce alcohol related harm in later life. Stimulate thought and self analysis by encouraging the target audience to talk about any drink related issues. Background InformationPeople of this age group can be highly defensive regarding their alcohol intake. Just speaking about it is tantamount to 'having a problem'. This is a barrier which needs to be overcome.This can be encouraged by giving the audience somewhere to talk and using places where they are already talking to deliver information and encourage them to find out more about alcohol consumption and their health and well-being.Project AimTo come up with ideas for content, external feeds, apps and a design for a social media site, www.tippletattle.com designed to encourage people to talk about and ultimately question their drinking habits. This site will provide a platform for conversation, information and professional advice about alcohol consumption and the health and well-being issues surrounding it. Although the information and advice on the site will be provided by the NHS this is not an NHS website. Its aim is to encourage user generated content in an environment which does not preach about issues surrounding alcohol consumption. NHS branding will be kept to a minimum but will be used to give credibility to information and professional advice offered. The site is intended for UK users.Who are the audience for the project and what are their motivations?Men and Women, mainly C1-E, aged 35+ Home drinkers who don't know how much they drink or how much they should be drinking. Social drinkers who drink with and as much as their mates and who see this as a 'normal' amount. Those who are aware that they may be drinking more than they should but do not want to talk about it to their friends and family. Those who have identified that they are drinking too much and want to help other people in the same position. Family and friends of people who may be drinking too much.
Motivations: reassurance, support, someone to talk to, a need to share experiences, advice, facts, information
Social technographic groups:Creators – publishes blogs, their own web pages, uploads video and music they have created, writes and posts articles and stories they have written.Critics – posts ratings, reviews, comments on other people’s blogs, contributes to forums and wikis
Collectors – use RSS feeds, bookmarks sites or photos Joiners – maintains a profile on a social network, visits SN sites.Spectators – read, listen, watch Inactives – does none of the aboveWhat is the single most important thing to communicate?It's OK to talk about alcohol.What do we want users to do?Explore the site, join in conversations, share experiences, encourage friends to join in, spread content through other social media platforms, become regular users, seek advice, take in information.
Creative deliverablesLogo design, look and feel for tippletattle.com Site design for key pages Content ideas - apps, links to other social media sites, information, advice, forums... Traffic driving ideas - Possible use of beer mats and press to help promote the site. A visual demonstration of user journeys for three people with different needs using the site.
The “tippletable” would move around the country visting bars and pubs providing great PR for the campaign, encourage people to talk while they are drinking and drive traffic to the website.
The table itself is made of a touch screen surface showing the image of a bar or pub table and beer mats.When the user places a drink on the virtual beer mat speech bubbles appear which contain live comments from the tippletattle Twitter feed. These include comments @tippletattle and #tippletattle and fade in and out as new comments are posted. One speech bubble prompts the user to have their say and join in the conversation.On pressing ‘click here’ a keyboard appears for the user to type their comment.This comment appears on the table and in the tippletattle twitter feed. It can be followed online on tippletattle.com and through Twitter.
The interactive banner uses the tippletattle twitter feed to provide live comments from people talking about drinking. Placing this on sites where people are reading about alcohol in the news or buying alcohol would help them to engage more with the content. This should then encourage them to visit the site.
The tippletattle.com homepageWithout creating a profile the user can browse the forums and news posts as well as accessing advice and resources and searching for content which might affect them. They cannot, however, contribute to the site by commenting on posts or using the drink diary this can only be done by those who login.
The user is able to create an anonymous profile where they would have to submit their e-mail address, which would be kept private, and create a username which will be visible to others and used when they log in to the site. They would also be asked what their usual drink was and where they usually consume it, this would be used to skin their logged in pages appropriately. Additional questions could be used to provide the user with more relevant content for example if their location was recorded they could be targeted with events in their area.
The drinks diary is an established tool for helping people control their drinking habits. Creating a digital version allows for greater flexibility for example users can text their units to the diary if they are out drinking so they don't forget what they've had. Users can also ask an expert to view their diary to get advice on how to change their drinking habits.

Once logged in the user can contribute to the site and contact other uses through the on-site messaging service. They can also take part in online events such as live chats and personalise their homepage.
Heavy users of the site can become admin members who moderate the site by removing inappropriate content and report misuse to the site manager.
User Journeys

Why is social media right for this brief?The brief highlighted the need to get people to question their drinking behaviour by encouraging them to talk about their alcohol consumption leading ultimately to them seeking further information and advice.
People already talk about alcohol in the news, online, among friends but the content of these conversations isn't always regulated and the advice they receive from their peers isn't always appropriate.
Tippletattle.com encourages people to talk by providing a safe environment for discussion. Professional advice is available on request which means the driving force of the site is not to preach about health issues; instead it becomes a gateway to more information.
The site also provides an anonymous platform for communication. Unlike the AA, people can access it whenever and wherever they like and may feel freer to speak their mind than they would in a face to face situation. It is also the case that the site is intended to target those who would not go to something like the AA as they do not perceive themselves as having a problem.
But is social media right for the target age group? Older users are increasing on social media sites. According to Neilson Netview [online] adults aged 35-49 account for 41.7% of twitter users. Other social media sites are seeing a similar trend,
"the single biggest age demographic in the U.S. on Facebook is now between 35 and 44, and that Facebook’s fastest growing demo is 55-plus."