Media: Strategy Analysis - Met reveals real side of knife crime

Target audience: Eleven- to 18-year-olds within London, focusingparticularly on the younger end of this age group
Budget: £80,000

AGENCIES
Media: MediaCom
Creative: Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy
Web design: Metropolitan Police Service
Radio: Kiss FM, Choice FM
Leaflets: Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy

STRATEGY

Sixteen thousand knife crimes were committed in London during a 12-month
period in 2003 and 2004. Concerned by this statistic and the number of
young people carrying knives, the Metropolitan Police launched Operation
Blunt in late 2004 to tackle the problem. Blunt's strategy was to use a
combination of education, enforcement and partnership activity to reduce
knife crime.

Research and anecdotal evidence showed many teenagers think carrying a
knife is no big deal, which may in part be explained by the fact that
there is no minimum sentence for knife possession.

The Met wanted to address this complacency and challenge the belief that
a knife can protect you. The December 2005 campaign informed young
Londoners of the consequences of carrying a knife and asked those with
knife crime information to phone Crimestoppers.

To succeed on such a limited budget - £80,000, including
production - the campaign had to infiltrate young peer groups and ignite
word of mouth to achieve awareness.

EXECUTION

- Creative: A mock computer game called Knife City was created on DVD.
At first sight, it appears to be a demo for a violent video game,
complete with a realistic cover, gritty graphics and pounding music.
However, as the lead character stabs his victim, the action cuts from
animation to real footage, which shows the assailant in police custody.
The demo ends with the strapline: "Carrying a knife. It's not a game."
Testimonials from real victims, their families and surgeons were
included in an extras feature on the DVD.

- Media: Video-game culture is all about swapping tips and cheats, while
the audience is always on the lookout for the next big thing. The DVD
was a "Trojan horse", taking the message to the heart of this group.

- Sampling: Ten thousand Knife City DVDs were distributed to teenagers
by Kiss and Choice FM street teams across 12 London boroughs in the
run-up to Christmas 2005.

- Radio: Kiss FM and Choice FM DJs encouraged listeners to go to the
station websites and download the Knife City demo for free, plugging it
as a genuine new video game. The DJs raised the profile of the issue via
a series of anti-knife infomercials, conveying the message in a credible
way. Choice FM also ran an anti-knife artwork competition, which was
promoted on-air and online.

- Online: A microsite, www.itsnotagame.org, was created. It included the
Knife City demo, a video download featuring real stories of knife crime
victims (from the BBC's Panorama programme) and a feedback page. The
Knife City demo was also positioned as "game of the month" on Kiss and
Choice FM's websites and was made available as a free download. A viral
of Knife City was also sent to around 40,000 people.

- Flyers: Metropolitan Police schools liaison officers and youth workers
distributed 30,000 anti-knife flyers.

RESULTS

The dedicated microsite received 25,000 unique visitors as of March
2006.

Of those who saw Knife City, 83 per cent of respondents gave a positive
rating, with 31 per cent saying it was "excellent"; 54 per cent of
respondents said the creative concept was "an effective way of getting
the message across" and 30 per cent said they would discuss the campaign
with friends.

The campaign received media coverage and was featured on BBC London, ITV
London, Sky News, Richard & Judy and news and gaming websites. Related
articles also appeared in the Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph and
regional press.

Most importantly, over the course of the campaign, actionable calls to
the Met about knife crimes rose by 30 per cent compared with the
previous year.

THE VERDICT - Mike Colling managing director, MC&C

Two strong insights strike you here. First, there is great creative
insight: it's not an obvious establishment message, likely to be
rejected. The use of the video-game format fits the audience's culture
and it's a clever technique that will appeal to a media-savvy audience
and should also be talked about.

Second, there is great media insight: if the creative concept was a
Trojan horse, so was the media plan, drawing on and developing the
creative insight.

Credible media partners were used in an intelligent way, with messages
embedded in editorial rather than simple advertising. The on-air
activity encapsulates this, with presenter mentions and competitions.
This is the station speaking, not the advertiser. Presenter mentions are
a very effective, and still rarely used, technique.

The use of websites to offer downloads of the demo and the street teams
to distribute it both extend the idea of assuming the media owner's
identity.

Equally, using the radio stations' e-mail databases to send an e-mail on
behalf of the campaign was also a good move. The campaign relied heavily
on the strong relationship between the stations and their audiences, and
this utilises that relationship to the full.

My one quibble would be with the mock live reads, which do not quite
resonate as they might. These fake presenter mentions seem to point to a
slight loss of nerve by the media planner. Perhaps, looking at the
coverage and frequency achieved by the real live reads and the
competition, there was too much concern for conventional media
numbers.

The results, however, are pretty good: more than 4,000 demo downloads
from the stations' websites is not amazing, but alongside downloads from
the microsite, as well as the thousands of DVDs distributed, the reach
is pretty broad.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the campaign is the way it caught
the attention of the chattering classes, with extensive coverage
generated in other media.

In summary: great insight, which is evident in the quality of the
creative as well as the media planning. Minor criticisms of the
execution don't detract much from a strong, inventive campaign.

SCORE: 4 out of 5 (excellent).