The relationship between brand awareness and action for two national aquatic invasive species prevention brands

Awareness and behavior change campaigns are key tools in efforts to manage environmental problems, including the unwanted impacts of aquatic invasive species (AIS).Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers!and Clean Drain Dry are two common, nationally recognized brands used to target recreational boaters with an AIS-prevention messages within the United States.Despite how often these AIS awareness brands are used, though, there is limited evidence that these brands are associated with boaters performing AIS-prevention behaviors.To investigate the impact of these brands, we used data from a national survey to determine factors that are related to boaters' self-reported frequency of performing AIS-prevention behaviors.Of the measured factors, overall awareness of AIS and awareness of Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers!and Clean Drain Dry were the most significant variables in predicting performance of AIS-prevention behaviors.This suggests that awareness of these commonly used brands is having a desirable impact on recreational boaters performing AISprevention actions and leveraging these brands and associated outreach materials is an effective method of outreach.