The Challenge

The rise of the internet has created opportunities to learn and communicate but also more risks for young people. In 2002 the government wanted to raise awareness that not everyone hanging out in chat rooms might be who they say they are.

Fourteen to 16-year olds were identified as a key target audience and a campaign was developed to reach them. It included cinema, teen press, postcards in schools and online activity as well as TV. Cinema took 76% of the budget while radio took 22%.

The TV Solution

Flextech channel Trouble was put on the schedule because it has a high profile among teenagers in general and 14-16 year-olds in particular. Trouble viewers were also highly likely to be active online. They were 13% more likely to have internet access than the average teen and 21% more likely to use internet chat rooms.

Two 40-second commercial used a child’s voice and a picture of a room. Gradually, however, although the voice stayed the same the image panned down to show a middle-aged man mouthing the words. The screen gradually went black before warning viewers not to give out email, mobile or other personal details.

The TV ads ran for five weeks from February 18, while other activity started in late January and continued until early April.

The ads were broadcast during high rating teen programmes such as Cruel Winter, That ’70s Show, Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince and Malibu CA. This activity was also extended to the Trouble website with banners ads reinforcing the TV message.

The Results

Although TV accounted for just 2% of the budget it had a powerful impact. Post-campaign research showed that TV had added stature to the message. Ninety-three per cent of teens agreeing that “putting an ad on television makes me think it’s a serious issue”.

Trouble viewers were also more likely to be aware of the campaign. Spontaneous awareness was 48% prior to the TV ads and 70% afterwards. However the figure among Trouble viewers was 82% compared to just 57% among those who didn’t watch the channel.

Recall of the campaign website, thinkuknow, increased two-fold after the TV campaign to 66%.

And although only a fraction of the budget was spent on TV, it scored highly on recall. Eighty four per cent of the target audience remembered seeing the ad on TV and 44% of 14-16-year-olds could specifically recall the Trouble channel compared to the 30% who remembered cinema.