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PAUSE
Digital Literacy Campaign
Digital Literacy
Across All Ages
Ranking number 3 globally for time spent online at 9 hours and 11 minutes per day, accessing technology and digital tools is not a problem for most Thai people. Research shows that the issue, however, lies in their ability to safely and responsibly navigate the internet.
According to a survey on digital literacy conducted by Total Access Communications or DTAC, Thailand’s third-largest mobile phone provider, 1 in 5 Thais have had their Facebook accounts hacked and are most likely to fall victim to tricks and scams, losing more money than any other Asian nation surveyed.
Considering these problems international non-profit media development organisation Internews partnered with SideKick in 2019 to launch its global digital literacy initiative in Thailand, aiming to enhance the digital prowess of people of all ages.
Solving the Digital Literacy Conundrum
We conducted an audience behaviour study and found that today’s internet users can be divided into three groups:
digital natives, digital migrants and baby boomers.
Based on analysis of our study we created targeted, customised content towards each demographic group, employing nostalgic marketing and human-centered strategies.
Targeted research-based content
Digital Natives
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Spend over 10 hrs/day online
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Native speakers of the digital language of computers, social media and video games
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Understand password security and two-step verification
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Most prone to oversharing e.g. personal info, private moments and real-time location
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Favour peer-to-peer communication
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At risk of identity theft
Digital Migrants
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Spend 8-9 hrs/day online (mostly for work)
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Acquired familiarity with digital systems as an adult
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Use email and LINE to communicate for work
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Spend free time on Facebook and online shopping
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Believe in statistics and numbers from reliable sources
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At risk of being hacked and scammed
Baby Boomers
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Spend 2-4 hrs/day online
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Spent most of their lives in analogue and only picked up digital tools very late in their lives
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Consume “news” on LINE and enjoy sharing articles with family and friends
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Prefer LINE to other social media platforms because it is considered the least “messy and complicated”
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At risk of believing and sharing fake news
Staying safe is as easy as 1-2-3
1. Digital Natives
Informed by our research, we developed personal stories, easily digestible infographics, behind the scenes interviews and comics to engage digital natives with the very real dangers of over sharing, spam accounts and stolen identities.
A true story told by a digital native about her virtual identity being taken away due to oversharing, reaching 383,000 viewers.
"Stolen"
2. Digital Migrants
Digital migrants make up the majority of the workforce, the majority of online spending and, therefore, the majority of those being scammed, especially through Facebook and Instagram.
Our research found that despite engaging in almost all facets of the internet, they have little interest in protecting their data, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft, hacks, phishing attacks and other forms of scams. Due to their tendency to believe statistics and facts and credible sources, one of the most popular content items for digital migrants was an interview with a cyber-law expert, reaching 136,500 individual viewers.
"Are you staying safe and secure online?"
A cyber law expert explains cyber-security and common threats to watch out for.
3. Baby Boomers
Seniors in Thailand have definitely embraced technology, however, through SideKick's research as well as information from the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, Baby Boomer's lack of digital literacy has made them susceptibility to consuming and sharing fake news.
SideKick therefore, employed a range of strategies from fact-checking how-tos to a family friendly reaction and self help videos with the goal to raise the digital proficiency of baby boomers.
Based on our findings that baby boomers favour LINE over other social media platforms we partnered with 10 influencer groups to increase our reach. The content they chose to share revealed their preference for digital greeting card-style images, infographics and tip-style posts.
Conclusion
1,079,000
771,442
17,441
people reached
video views
shares, likes and comments
Videos overwhelmingly outperformed other mediums in all three demographic groups in both reach and engagement, accounting for over 70% of the total reach.
We conducted interviews with supporters and Facebook fan page members and discovered that the campaign had indeed succeeded in emphasising the severity, and very real existence, of digital literacy. Each demographic group expressed an intention to change their digital behaviours; from reducing live sharing habits and identifying secure ways of accessing personal and sensitive information, to relying more on creditable sources for news and information. SideKick will work with Internews in distilling the lessons learnt from this project to help partners develop their own local campaigns.
