Analysis of Queensland's Campaign: Floodwater Driving Attitudes Report

This report analyzes the Queensland government's campaign, "If it's flooded, forget it," designed to change public attitudes and behaviors regarding driving through floodwaters. The campaign, prompted by fatalities, utilized a multi-faceted approach incorporating affective, cognitive, and conative components to address the issue. Social media played a crucial role in disseminating information and engaging the public, with strategies like the 'CX loop' and targeted content on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. The campaign's success is evidenced by a significant shift in attitudes, with a substantial increase in people who would avoid driving through floodwaters and a greater willingness to seek alternative routes. The report also suggests additional strategies, including events, street plays, billboards, and safety guards to further close the attitude-behavior gap and reinforce the message of floodwater safety. The report highlights the importance of understanding risk perception and the effectiveness of social marketing in promoting public safety.

Running head: CHANGING ATTITUDES TO DRIVING THROUGH FLOODWATERS
Changing Attitudes to Driving through Floodwaters
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CHANGING ATTITUDES TO DRIVING THROUGH FLOODWATERS
Table of Contents
The Different Components That Affect Attitudes.....................................................................2
Effectiveness of Social Media to Keep People Engaged...........................................................3
Services to Close the Attitude-Behaviour Gap..........................................................................3
 Event...............................................................................................................................4
 Street Act/Play................................................................................................................4
 Billboards and Hoardings................................................................................................4
 Set up safety Guards........................................................................................................4
Reference List –.........................................................................................................................5

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The Different Components That Affect Attitudes
The various components which were engaged and affects the attitudes are – affective
(feel), cognitive (think) and conative (behave) (Tannenbaum et al., 2015). "Affect" alludes to
the evaluative responses which are epitomized. The two normal types of affect are
temperaments and feelings, the two of which are the emotional states. Relating these three
components to given case study, states that approximately half the people in Queensland
initially felt that floodwater is 11-30 cm deep and that their vehicle can handle it
(Tannenbaum et al., 2015). While 25% of them did not think that driving in flooded areas
was dangerous and some even assumed that the speed of the water did not matter (Gissing et
al., 2016). Due to this careless attitude, a lot of accidents have already happened leading to
death for a few. Hence, the Queensland Government took the initiative to reduce the number
of people who thought similarly (Grice & O’Halloran, 2019). During the campaign, it was found
that men tend to behave in this manner because of their masculine belief and boldness.
Furthermore, it was also observed, another contributor to this poor behaviour was lack of
knowledge and now knowing how else to behave as they did not know about any other
alternative. The campaign took a ground-breaking tactic to stop the citizens from putting their
own and their loved ones life at risk. It looped them into how they should contemplate,
prepare, act and maintain how they behave. The result obtained was a drastic change in the
attitude of people towards driving through floodwater where 49% of them now will never
drive through it from just 5% (Shevellar & Riggs, 2015). There was a change in their
behaviour as well where 79% of them will try to look for alternatives and 59% of them will
make sure to have a back-up plan (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).

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CHANGING ATTITUDES TO DRIVING THROUGH FLOODWATERS
Effectiveness of Social Media to Keep People Engaged
In this time and age, every other person is more absorbed into their phone than their
surroundings. So, it was assumed that the social media communication strategy campaign for
bringing about a change in the attitude of people towards driving through floodwaters would
help. It is seen that more often than not, a lot many people believe and follow everything they
see or read on the internet (Taylor et al., 2016). So, this ground-breaking approach to develop
a communication mix by instituting a ‘CX loop’ was successful to keep people engaged
(Sheats & Middlestadt, 2013). To ensure that the campaign had the correct touch points and
networks to facilitate word of mouth and digital spread, an advocacy stage was introduced.
This clever idea eventually birthed to a hitched paid media networks like TV, print and an
extremely strong portion of social media that included content marketing on YouTube,
Instagram and Facebook mostly amongst few other social media applications (Shevellar &
Riggs, 2015). Here, TV grasped the major attention from the consumers followed by online
platform which made sure that people were bound to make a fall back plan. Social media was
quite effective in preventing people from dong what they used to do during flooded roads. It
made the consumers share their real-time information about the flooded streets in order to
help others make an alternative plan and to provide them with tips and tools with the same
(Allan, Sniehotta & Johnston, 2013). People got so engaged in the online map that they could
now add content and share stories and message to someone who perhaps was in need of it.
The campaign, all in all, was a success and it lead to an increase in the figure of geo-specific
posts which targeted to local communities as they had particularly performed well.
Services to Close the Attitude-Behaviour Gap
Everyone has a positive attitude and reaction towards sustainability and a clean city
while very few try to put in some effort to do the same (Ajzen, 2015). It is more often than

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CHANGING ATTITUDES TO DRIVING THROUGH FLOODWATERS
not found that the actual obtaining behaviour differs from the attitudes. Similarly, in
Queensland, the four tactics that has not already been implemented by Queensland Fire and
Emergency Services and could perhaps help the citizens are –
 Event – An event could be conducted to spread awareness amongst the residents that
how dangerous it is to travel on flooded waters by telling them the impacts and effects
of the same (Franklin et al., 2014). Here, people should come with alternative ideas to
abstain from travelling on a flooded street.
 Street Act/Play – This is one of the second most effective ways after social media
campaign to deliver a message across the audience or the community in this case.
Here, a group will enact what actually happens when a person drives through a water-
logged road and by doing so make them refrain from doing it in future.
 Billboards and Hoardings – The government should put up billboards and hoardings
across the town before the arrival of rainy season (Ajzen, 2015). This would help as
the drivers and locals would notice and try to be aware and maybe even prevent from
stepping out during the bad weather (Gissing et al., 2016). This in return, would help
them as the chances of them meeting with an accident will decrease and hence could
save them from the hefty medical expense.
 Set up safety Guards – This is the traditional method to abstain someone from doing
something (Gissing et al., 2016). The safety guards must be positioned in a safe area
of the street and stop people from driving and if needed even by penalizing them with
a fine.

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CHANGING ATTITUDES TO DRIVING THROUGH FLOODWATERS
Reference List –
Ajzen, I. (2015). The theory of planned behaviour is alive and well, and not ready to retire: a
commentary on Sniehotta, Presseau, and Arajo-Soares, Health Psychology Review,
9, 131-137.
Allan, J. L., Sniehotta, F. F., & Johnston, M. (2013). The best laid plans: Planning skill
determines the effectiveness of action plans and implementation intentions. Annals of
Behavioral Medicine, 46, 114-120.
Franklin, R. C., King, J. C., Aitken, P. J., & Leggat, P. A. (2014). “Washed away”—
Assessing community perceptions of flooding and prevention strategies: A north
queensland example. Natural Hazards, 73, 1977-1998.
Gissing, A., Haynes, K., Coates, L., & Keys, C. (2016). Motorist behaviour during the 2015
Shoalhaven floods. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 31, 23-27.
Grice, D., & O’Halloran, P. (2019). If it’s flooded, forget it! Changing attitudes to driving through
floodwaters [Ebook]. Queensland: Queensland Fire and Emergency Services.
Sheats, J. L., & Middlestadt, S. E. (2013). Salient beliefs about eating and buying dark green
vegetables as told by Mid-western African–American women. Appetite, 65, 205-209.
Shevellar, L. & Riggs, R. (2015). Understanding resistance to emergency and disaster
messaging. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 30, 31-35.
Tannenbaum, M. B., Hepler, J., Zimmerman, R. S., Saul, L., Jacobs, S., Wilson, K., &
Albarracín, D. (2015). Appealing to fear: A meta-analysis of fear appeal effectiveness
and theories. Psychological Bulletin, 141, 1178.

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Taylor, F., Archer, F., Bird, D. & Paton, D. (2016). Lessons from the floodsafe program: why
people do and do not prepare for floods. Paper presented at Floodplain Managers
Association National Conference, Newcastle.