A Local Authority Partnership Tackling a Serious Community Issue
Branding + Website Design + Campaigns + Digital and Outdoor Advertising + PR + Communications + Print
Campaign Objectives
Many types of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) cut across all social and demographic boundaries and the impact is often harmful.
In August 2022, following a successful bid to the Home Office, a Safer Streets funding grant of just over £686,000 was awarded to Canterbury partners to make the streets safer for all members of the public and, in particular, women and girls and reduce VAWG offences both in the daytime and night-time economy.
The Canterbury Community Safety Partnership required a brand, educational website, marketing materials and a media campaign. The objective was to educate the public about the term ‘VAWG’, why the campaign was needed and what measures were being introduced to tackle the issue.
- Canterbury Community Safety Partnership
- Community Safety
- saferstreetscanterbury.com
Campaign Brand Building
A campaign relies heavily on brand design to communicate its message, capture attention, and foster engagement.
Building a brand through design is a meticulous process that involves crafting visual elements to convey the essence of an organisation. Every aspect of the design is considered, from logos and typography to colour schemes and imagery, building a recognisable and cohesive visual language that plays a crucial role in shaping the perception of a campaign.
Website Design
Brandspace designed and project managed the build of the Safer Streets educational website, this included co-ordinating copy from all eleven partners and applying it in a clear and concise structure. Elements of the existing student-designed logo were applied to the new website to establish a campaign brand that could also be used across all marketing materials. The website needed to include a summary of each of the eleven partners’ involvement in the campaign and details of the projects that were being delivered locally to reduce VAWG offences. View the website.
Media campaign
Using multiple communication channels to deliver the Safer Streets unified message, a strategic approach was taken. This campaign leveraged various media platforms such as traditional advertising (radio and print), digital channels (website and social media), and other forms of communication (events, public relations) to maximise reach, engagement, and impact.
Here’s a breakdown of the plan involved in the integrated media campaign:
Goal Setting: The campaign began with clearly defined objectives.
Target Audience Identification: We needed to understand the demographics, interests, and behaviours of the target audience – crucial for tailoring the campaign message and selecting the most effective channels.
Message Development: We crafted a consistent and compelling message to resonate with the audience and applied it across all chosen channels.
Channel Selection: Based on the audience and campaign goals, we used the most suitable and affordable media.
Content Creation: Tailoring content for each chosen channel ensured that the message was delivered effectively and resonated with the audience in the specific context of each platform. This could include creating videos for social media, designing print ads, or developing interactive website experiences.
Campaign Execution: Implementing the campaign meant ensuring consistent messaging, branding, and timing. For this project to be a success we had to be involved in regular coordination between the different teams, organisations and suppliers responsible.
Measurement and Analytics: Tracking the campaign performance using relevant metrics such as reach, engagement, website traffic, and conversion rates was crucial to ensuring the overall goals were met and informing future marketing decisions.
Integration and Cohesion: You might see from the examples how all campaign elements worked together harmoniously and how we applied consistent and memorable branding, messaging, and imagery across all media to help reinforce the campaign’s message and increase its impact.
Social media advertising
Raising awareness of the Safer Streets campaign through social media advertising
As part of Safer Streets Canterbury, two Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns were launched. One aimed to raise awareness of the term VAWG and the campaign in general. The second was to inform the Canterbury community of the SafeZone app and where to download it.
The campaigns ran from May to June and September to October with the following results:
Impressions: 184,307
Reach: 73,797
Total clicks on the advert: 4,087
Link Clicks: 1,389
Click-through rate: 4.41%
Out-of-home bus advertising
Huge impact bus advertising to deliver the Safer Streets message across Canterbury city and beyond.
As part of the Safer Streets Canterbury campaign, we are running some out-of-home (OOH) advertising for a year via a mega-rear bus back, which travels around the city and surrounding areas.
We are using the bus back to raise awareness of the campaign with the community, whether they are passengers, pedestrians or drivers.
The bus route runs through Canterbury, including to the University of Kent and surrounding towns, so it is targeting those who will benefit from the educational and enforcement measures being put in place to ensure the city is a safer place for the whole community.
Local radio advertising
Raising awareness of the Safer Streets campaign through local radio advertising.
A local radio station, KMFM, was sponsored during the Hitlist programme for three months to highlight awareness of the campaign and the SafeZone App. Radio advertising was also launched with Heart FM targeting those who live, work, visit and study in the city to raise awareness of how the partners are tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG).
PR
Raising awareness of the Safer Streets campaign
Several press releases were written and distributed to the local media to raise awareness of the campaign and the projects implemented.
Along with various local coverage, a whole programme was dedicated to the topic of VAWG on BBC Radio Kent’s Anna Cookson’s programme The Wake Up Call with various members of the Safer Streets team interviewed.
Social media and blog posts were also created detailing each of the projects.
Printed materials
Canterbury businesses were offered free training to help them respond to incidents of violence against women and girls (VAWG). The training was delivered by the Rising Sun Domestic Violence and Abuse Service and the East Kent Rape Crisis Centre, and helped employers and staff:
- Identify inappropriate behaviour, sexual harassment and VAWG
- How and where to report
- How and when to safely intervene
- Support those who disclose sexual violence or domestic abuse
Designed printed materials that supported the training included:
Training Certificates – issued to every business that took part in the training.
Window Stickers – issued to every business that took part to display in their shop window to help raise campaign awareness and show their commitment to tackling the issue.
Information Cards – cards were created that could be handed out to local businesses providing them with information on the free training and how to book.
Generic cards were also issued that were handed out by the Street Pastors while on duty (at nighttime in Canterbury town centre) to those who may be vulnerable. The cards detailed the issue of VAWG and where to go to get support if needed.
Just a note to say thank you for doing a wonderful job with the branding, promotion and communications for Safer Streets. Your professionalism, accuracy and understanding of the remit, together with the painful process of gaining material and input from the contributing parties was more than I could have expected and better than almost any other like company that I have had dealings with. My Sincere thanks to Rachel and all at Brandspace Media for a fine job well done and I look forward to speaking in the future.
– John Woodward, Kent Police.
