Making a small budget go a long way

This shows how the Metropolitan Police Service used creative communications to tackle London’s gun-crime problem. Research showed that black teenagers aged 12-16 were susceptible to gun crime’s glamorous imagery, so a strategy was developed to demonstrate a different reality. Using the rallying cry ‘Stop the guns’, communications dramatised the effects of gun crime and encouraged people to come forward with information. Creative media was central to the strategy, incorporating everything from bullet-hole-ridden music magazines to petrol pumps. As a result, calls with intelligence on gun crime have trebled, arrests of offenders has increased, and Trident officers seized 908 guns in 2007, which was more than the previous four years combined.

Judge’s comment

The Trident campaign used impressive groundbreaking research and demonstrated new learning and great use of media on a relatively small budget.

David Pemsel, group marketing director, ITV

For the complete case study visit the WARC website.