1. © Behavioural Insights ltd
Results from the Timboon trial

2. © Behavioural Insights ltd
Background
Physical activity is a key driver of health and
incentivising physical activity is becoming a common
strategy to help people reach their recommended levels
of daily activity.
Research has found that rewards for goal attainment
are more likely to have positive longer-term outcomes
than simply rewarding outcomes. Similarly, group
incentives can be very effective.
At the same time, wearable technology has made it
much easier for us to quantify physical activity.
However, it is not known whether wearables alone are
the creators of behaviour change or just facilitators.
However, remain on how we should formulate targets
and what impact this has on health inequalities.
The Vitality Program is
an excellent example
incentives in public
health.
Wearables will allow better
measurement of behaviour.
Evidence suggests that
incentivising steps will be
more effective than
incentivising weight loss

3. © Behavioural Insights ltd
5 out of 7
days a week
In order to get a massage
voucher, everyone in the
team need to hit their
target
In Timboon, 36 staff
members were already
allocated into 9 different
teams as part of their health
being program.
We randomly split the teams into
two types. One had
personalised targets and other
had a group target
This was measured on a
FitBit that each person was
given as part of the
existing program.
Team A
Team B
This was the person’s
average daily steps prior
to the trial + 2,500
This was the
group’s average
daily steps prior
to the trial +
2,500

4. © Behavioural Insights ltd
The incentive scheme was effective, but the personalised targets
were more effective than the group targets
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48
StepsperdayinThousands
Group Target Personal Target
During the trial period only one group got the
incentive and even then they only got it once!
Despite this, we saw a increase of 2,144 steps per
week during the trial period.
We saw also saw that the personal target group
did 587 more steps per week than the group target
group.
The difference between the two groups was even
bigger for those who weren’t the least active or the
most active before the trial started (in the 2nd and
3rd quartiles). However, the incentive scheme as a
whole did help the least active.
Jan Apr Jul Sep Jan
The trial started in
August 2015 and ran
until Jan 2016

5. © Behavioural Insights ltd
Stories from the ground
Initially we were
sceptical, but we could
see that our steps were
increased!
Jane, Doctor
Even though I never won the
massage vouchers I was really
driven by the target. I just kept
walking to hit that target!
Jim, office manager