With official figures for England and Wales revealing that one in four women and one in six men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, Camden Council decided to create the ‘know you’re not alone’ campaign to raise awareness and help their communities access vital support services. Communications Lead Lorna Gott explains what they did and the important role that video played in delivering their message.
The context
Raising awareness of domestic abuse has always been a key priority for the council. In 2014 we launched our first targeted campaign, ‘know this isn’t love’ which was aimed at people aged between 16 - 24. In 2015 we created ‘know it’s not too late’ which was targeted towards older women and men. The campaigns had both been extremely successful but we knew that we had more groups that we needed to reach. In Camden, we have large LGBTQ and Bengali communities, so we wanted to extend our campaign to include messages that would resonate with them. We also wanted to recognise the significant number of men experiencing domestic abuse. We decided to build on the work we had done over the past few years to create something with a wider reach. We also wanted to increase the number of referrals from each of our target groups to Camden Safety Net – our dedicated, borough-wide domestic abuse support service.
The plan
Before we started any tactical work we spent several weeks researching our target communities and developing our understanding of their needs. We worked closely with experts from across our service areas to examine the data and insight we already held and spoke with a number of charities, partner organisations, community groups and domestic abuse survivors to help build a picture of our target audience.
The sensitive nature of this campaign made the research stage even more important. It was critical to understand our audience, the difficult and dangerous situations they might be facing, and to get the messaging absolutely right in order to ensure victims took the right steps to get help, as safely as possible. Every element was analysed in terms of how it might be received or interpreted to ensure the campaign was effective in doing this. We knew from our previous campaigns that investing heavily in the research and insight phase of a campaign is hugely beneficial so we wanted to make sure we undertook as much research as possible before moving towards creative discussions.
Once we had a fuller understanding of our groups we started thinking about the format. We knew we wanted to create videos as we wanted something that could easily and quickly tell the different stories we needed to. We also wanted something that could be easily shared online and from which we could extract powerful images for an integrated print campaign.
We ran a competitive tender process to find a creative agency who we could work with to bring our ideas to life. We wanted the look and feel to complement the branding of our previous campaigns so we prepared a brief which focused on that while also giving the agency room to bring their own creativity to the project.
The execution
We opted for a digital first approach to encourage sharing of the campaign materials and maximise the channels that we could circulate the campaign. We decided to create a two-minute main film that would tell the stories of each of our different target audiences, as well as a number of shorter edits which focused on the individual stories in turn. This provided us with material we could use all together as well as footage we could specifically use with our targeted audiences.
We worked hand-in-hand with the agency to identify filming locations, cast the actors and develop the script. This last element was particularly important as we wanted to ensure that the key messages including in the script achieved the right tone and that the language used by the actors felt authentic to our target audiences. We regularly tested the draft scripts with key partners and colleagues across the council to make sure we were pitching it correctly and edited the content as necessary.
We launched the video footage across our social media channels, including Twitter and Facebook. The content was also screened in local cinemas and shared with a number of partners and community influencers who in turn shared the materials with their own networks. This helped us to reach an even wider audience than would have been possible on our own – something that was critical to helping us reach individuals in need of support but who might not ordinarily engage with the council.
We also integrated traditional media channels into our campaign. We devised bus shelter advertisements and a poster campaign that appeared in hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, libraries, community group buildings and police stations. We promoted the campaign through a series of proactive media interviews, case studies and features in our residents’ magazine. We also shared it with staff through our intranet and digital display screens.
The impact
We recorded a 62.5 per cent increase in the number of self-referrals to Camden Safety Net following the campaign compared with the same period the previous year. We also saw a five point increase in the number of people identifying as LGBTQ referring themselves to the service, going from 4 per cent to 9 per cent. It is extremely encouraging to see that people are actively coming to us for help.
Raising awareness of the support available was also hugely important to us as many people experiencing domestic abuse may not be ready to reach out for help yet. We saw good levels of awareness of the campaign in our residents’ survey which is very encouraging and many councils have also been in contact with us to explore the possibility of adapting the materials to reach their own residents so we are confident the message will have an even greater reach in the future. As local government budgets tighten, sharing collateral and developing campaigns in partnership is something that the sector should definitely be exploring in more detail.
Why it worked
The extensive research phase was key to the success of this campaign. We invested time in truly understanding our audiences and the best ways of engaging with them. We worked closely with experts across a range of different organisations at every stage of the campaign to make sure what we were developing would be informative, appropriate and give us the greatest chance of communicating with people. I don’t think it would have been possible to create something so powerful without the involvement of all those different people.
Lessons learned
Don’t be afraid to change direction if something isn’t working. We changed the voiceover in one of our scenes as the original wasn’t quite right and as a result the footage was much better for it. It’s also important to prioritise channels. At once point we considered doing a Thunderclap to promote the campaign but it wasn’t something that we had sufficient time to do or was rooted in evidence of being an effective channel. Just because a facility is available doesn’t mean you have to do it.
Want to know more?
For more information please contact Danielle Rhodes, Core Communications Officer at London Borough of Camden Council.