With research showing that girls between 16 and 24 are at the highest risk of domestic abuse, Enfield Council developed an emotive and educational campaign to help young women recognise the signs and seek help. Head of Communications David Greely explains what they did.
In Enfield we have a dedicated Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, focused on addressing domestic abuse issues facing young people. One of the biggest challenges facing the most at-risk group (16-24 year olds) is that they do not always understand what constitutes domestic abuse within a relationship or where they can go for help if they, or someone they know, is experiencing it. We wanted to help tackle this.
The solution
We decided to create a staggered six month campaign that would raise awareness of abusive behaviour, explaining what it is and providing practical advice to help young women to spot the signs. We also agreed that our second campaign objective would be focused on directing our audience to further information, help and support.
We decided to develop a digital first campaign as online platforms such as YouTube and Instagram are some of the key channels where women between 16-30 communicate with their peers and seek advice on a range of issues, including relationships and sexual health.
We developed a creative which mirrored the lifestyle look popular on those digital platforms, and featuring young women who would resonate with our target audience. We developed key messages which tackled the common signs of domestic abuse head on, but in language that was straightforward and clear, such as ‘he doesn’t love you if…he shares intimate photos of you online’ or ‘he uses violence to control you’. We also included the line ‘you’re worth more – don’t be blind to the facts’ to help empower young women to recognise their own value and power to walk away from abusive relationships. All of our creative material also included details of organisations who could be contacted for support and information, such as the wider council, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, Enfield Saheli and the Enfield Women’s centre.
In addition to promoting our campaign across social platforms we also used other channels such as our website and those of partner organisations to extend its reach. We featured it on the Youth Enfield website, Love Your Doorstep (a local community social media platforms) and on posters, outdoor boards and through advertisements in magazines. We reinforced our key messages with school visits and also linked the campaign to key annual events such as White Ribbon Day and Valentine’s Day, to highlight the flipside to the romantic ideal of relationships.
The impact
As a result of our targeted Valentine’s Day we recorded a 1,966 per cent increase in unique visits to our domestic abuse information page. By the time the campaign concluded in March 2017 visitors to our website were spending an average of three minutes longer on our pages that at the start of campaign activity. Our Facebook activity achieved 3,732 views and we had 657 views of the online video we created. We also saw a three per cent increase in the number of domestic abuse crime being reported in Enfield.
Why it worked / how we’re sustaining it
We are building on the success of this campaign by developing it further for 2017/2018. The new campaign ‘boyfriend material’ will use similar direct key messages and lifestyle creative to help our target audience to understand the behaviours that make someone an unsuitable partner. We’re will be continuing to focus on digital platforms, which have proved especially popular with our target audience. Using these platforms and mirroring the look and feel of content that people already use on channels like Facebook and Instagram has been a key part of the campaign’s success.
Lessons learned
In the planning stage for this campaign we were very focused on engaging with a specific and tightly defined demographic which informed the development of all aspects of the campaign from creative, through to preferred channels and activities. This worked really well and resulted in high levels of engagement and advocacy among the target audience.
Want to know more?
For more information please contact David Greely, Head of Communications at Enfield Council.