Justatextaway - strengthening connections with the ones we love

Abstract

JustATextAway is a social movement helmed by four final-year undergraduates from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. Directed at Singaporean college and tertiary students aged 18-25, the campaign aims to strengthen parent-child relationships in Singapore by redefining mobile-facilitated interactions as heartwarming moments that can supplement face-to-face conversations. With the hectic lifestyles of today’s society causing a societal lack of conversations at the heart of our homes, our campaign aims to leverage on the advantages of mobile technology to increase opportunities for parent-child interactions. JustATextAway’s primary goal is to encourage Singaporean millennials to take the initiative in interacting with their parents via texting, even amidst their busy schedules. The campaign utilised social media platforms and content partnership opportunities with leading family organisations to garner audience attention and interest; encouraging participation through online contests, as well as an official live-streamed record-setting event. The campaign achieved its behavioural objectives in increasing intention to use mobile technology for the purposes of parent-child interactions, as well as self-reported target behaviour performance. JustATextAway also managed to obtain media coverage from Shin Min Daily News, The New Paper, and 938Now. Overall, the campaign garnered a PR value of $45,551.04, with an overall expenditure of $1398.00. This paper presents a concise summary that details the development of key campaign strategies from our formative research. It also includes an evaluation of campaign effectiveness through the analysis of pre- and post- campaign questionnaires, focus group discussions, social media metrics, and news media coverage, in addition to qualitative findings obtained from interviews with our partners. This report also discusses our campaign limitations, as well as proposed recommendations. Original documents, such as detailed tables and other relevant information, can be found in the appendix as references to the report.