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50 FIREFightingInCanada.com September 2016 in certain areas. So what if the focus changed from how to market mobile phones to millennials, or where to open a new retail pet store, to trying to connect with 20-somethings whose focus on Snapchat, and not what's on the stove, is causing an alarming trend in cooking fires? Could firefighters use these same marketing tools and strategies to target subgroups of the general population? If you consider that fire departments have access to a wealth of information relat- ed to the people, structures and neighbour- hoods within a community – all of which is tied to a location – then it's clear that the short answer to the question of whether or not fire departments can use these market- ing tools is yes. This inspired the London Fire Department to put the concept into prac- tice, combining demographic data, powerful analytical tools and GIS technology to drive decision making in several areas. JOHN KOBARDA – FIRE CHIEF, LONDON FIRE DEPARTMENT The concept of fire prevention has been around for well over half a century. Despite knowing the best fire is the one that is never fought, fire departments remain heav- ily focused on extinguishing fires. Even in London, 87 per cent of the fire department's staff is in the fire suppression division, with just one per cent dedicated to public educa- tion. We have a responsibility to protect the safety of our citizens, but the challenge is to find new ways to put fire-safety education into action. We started from the concept that build- ings do not start fires – people do. Viewing the fire challenge from this perspective is what led us to explore how we could use marketing to change people's fire-safety behaviours. In 2007, we launched our ini- tial fire-safety marketing campaign aimed at educating Londoners about working smoke alarms, as well as cooking, candle and electrical safety. Our early campaigns took a citywide overarching approach that cost approximately $30,000. The campaigns evolved over the next five years, resulting in a reduction of C-occupancy fires (fires in residences, apartments, boarding houses, dorms, hotels) from more than 250 annually to approximately 180. Our early campaigns reinforced the potential and power of mar- keting fire safety. In 2011, our approach evolved when we incorporated the knowledge from one of London's new deputy fire chiefs, Dave Lazenby, who served in the British fire service. For more than a decade, the British fire service has placed a great deal of effort on risk reduction. Using Lazenby's knowl- edge, we encouraged our team to develop a new approach – something we call pur- pose-driven marketing – that is focused on reaching out to Londoners differently. The idea was to stop look- ing at Londoners as a homogenous group, and instead recognize that every city is made up of a diverse col- lection of subgroups, living in different neighbourhoods, with unique backgrounds, habits and preferences. Executing our new strategy in combina- tion with market-seg- mentation software acquired by the city, we gained a better understanding of and insight into the demo- graphics throughout London. The tool helped us understand exactly who the people in our city are – how old they are, how they spend their money, what they do in their leisure time, how they consume informa- tion, how they think and their attitudes – information that would help us know how and where to communicate to them more effectively. By doing this research, we followed one of the first rules of marketing: know your audience. Next, we needed to make a connection between these demographic profiles and fires in the city. This is where geographic information system (GIS) technology came into play. One of our firefighters, Scott Walsh, expressed a keen interest in learning GIS software. Within six months, he suc- cessfully used the software to identify two specific kinds of fires in the city – careless cooking and careless smoking – that we felt could be reduced with the right messaging and targeting. We also learned that while cooking was the primary cause across the city, it was not the highest frequency in all of the areas identified. In fact, in many areas careless smoking was 10 to 20 per cent greater than cooking-related fires. This information was integrated into a heat map that showed that 55 per cent of the fires that occurred from 2010 to 2014 took place in 13 areas, which represented roughly 20 per cent of London's land area, and 38 per cent of London's population. Once we combined this information with demo- graphic data, we discovered exactly where and how more than half the fires in the city had occurred, as well as the personality types of the people responsi- ble for them. In addition to these actions, we also engaged a market-seg- mentation software company to conduct an analysis of our data. Segmentation is a process that divides a large homogenous group (Canadian pop- ulation) into clearly recognizable seg- ments or subgroups. Individuals falling into a segment have simi- lar needs, wants, social values, activities and demand characteris- tics. We learned that of the 68 segmented groups in Canada, 10 have a higher prevalence of causing fires and eight of these groups resided within the areas of concern. The company then looked at the population density of these groups throughout the city and confirmed the cor- relation. To see a sample of segmentation, enter your postal code into the following website and see how closely the descriptors identify you and your neighbours: www. environicsanalytics.ca/prizm5 Like any big brand about to embark on a campaign, London Fire was now armed with marketing intelligence to determine how to engage our audience. We developed a focused media strategy aimed at three target groups. As one example, we designed care- less smoking ads targeting 20- to 30-year- olds and displayed them in places where we knew this age group frequented such as bars and nightclubs. In 2013, London became one of Canada's first fire departments to harness predictive analytics and GIS to develop and roll out a fire-education program. That year, we reduced C-occupancy fires by 22 per cent to 131. Whereas London experienced 6.44 fires per 10,000 The London Fire Department in Ontario has opted for hard-hitting fire-safety messaging to target cigarette fires.

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