Industry Recognition for VVU Knife Harm campaign

We are delighted that our successful knife harm awareness campaign – that encourages parents to have a conversation with their children about the dangers of knife harm – has received awards in three recent industry events.

In the European Agency Awards the campaign won first place in the not-for-profit category for best use of social media. In the Drum Awards, which celebrates the best work from the world of marketing and media we were delighted to win Silver in the Government / public sector category. And in the BIMA Awards which is celebrates Interactive Media we took Bronze in the use of digital media category.

The knife harm campaign is aimed at parents and the initial campaign ran on social media channels targeting parents in Essex, with the call to action to encourage parents to visit the VVU website and find out more about knife crime – the law, the facts, the signs to look out for – in order to feel confident to have a conversation with their children about the dangers of carrying a knife.

Our own research and evaluation shows we reached more than half of Essex parents (of children aged 11 to 18) and that three quarters of parents who saw the campaign would be more likely to now speak to their child about knife harm.

We are also nominated and eagerly awaiting the results for the UK search awards, where we are nominated for best use of search – third sector / not for profit and best local (small) campaign results, on 4 December.

Since the initial campaign run we have grown the campaign by producing more creative assets to use on social media and also by developing lesson plans that can take the message into schools.

You can find out more at www.essexvvu.co.uk/knives