Preventing Childhood Drownings in Backyard, Residential Pools: Understanding Stakeholders' Roles in Knowledge Mobilization and the Creation of a 2017 Protable Pool Safety Social Marketing Campaign in Ottawa, ON

Abstract

In this first manuscript, the research purpose was to explore stakeholders perceived roles in mobilizing pool safety knowledge and to understand the barriers associated with the uptake of pool safety initiatives. Six water safety experts were interviewed to gain insight into their perceptions and diverse roles. Using grounded theory, it was determined that stakeholders perceive they have a role in mobilizing pool safety knowledge. Three overarching themes emerged from the data which aligned with a proposed Drowning Prevention Spectrum: pool safety experts perceive their responsibility in mobilizing pool safety knowledge through their role in developing knowledge and skills as a safety educator; developing and promoting campaigns and products through their role as a marketer of behaviour change; and through their role in the development and enforcement of policies and legislation. Interviewees were also asked what they perceived as some of the major barriers to the uptake of pool safety information and initiatives. Interviewed stakeholders revealed that the main social ecological barriers included personal barriers (cost and time), social barriers (policy and awareness), and physical barriers (backyard aesthetics). The results of the first manuscript demonstrates that even though all interviewed stakeholders perceive they have a role in mobilizing pool safety knowledge, there are still barriers in the uptake of pool safety knowledge by citizens and pool owners. The second manuscript focused on using Weinreich’s (2010) process model and semi structured interviews with six pool safety experts as well as marketing experts to create a social marketing campaign to emphasize the risks associated with portable pools. This article goes through the six steps outlined by Weinreich (2010) as well as using theories in the development of the campaign messages. Through interviews, experts gave their opinions and suggestions on most effective campaign messages, images, target audience, and promotional channels. The mock campaign ads were then presented to the marketing team in whom they gave their ideas and suggestions on how to hook the target audience in wanting to learn more about portable pool safety. A final campaign was crafted and will be implemented in a future City of Ottawa initiative.