Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies Case studies NSPCC - Don’t Hide It campaign Yell - The Yellow Woods Challenge Department of Health, Immunisation Branch - HPV Vaccination Campaign National Schools Partnership and LeapFrog Toys
NSPCC Don’t Hide It campaign 1.
What age do you promote to? 5-18 years.
2.
How do you choose the appropriate PR channels to target this age group? Children and young people mainly consume media messages through online, and 'bedroom- based' media such as youth sites, social networking sites, commercial radio, teen magazines and special interest publications like football and gaming mags.
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So once we have identified what the key message should be for children and young people, e.g. I'm not alone, I can take this action to get help or I feel cared for, we can then consult with children and specialist agencies and explore the media and other vehicles that best match up those messages to the intended audience. Examples of tactics we have used recently include; advertorials in teen magazines alongside problem pages where we have a say in the language used, images featured, and advice provided; commissioning joint surveys with online sites popular with the target audience to get their views and at the same time talk to them about things that concern them; music media initiatives to reach young people especially boys who are forming strong ties with the various media outlets in this arena that they can nurture well into adulthood. We look for ways to link what we are saying with influencers in this area who can relate to the target audience in a very real and authentic way. e.g. the initiative with Hip Hop Connection working with rappers, Plan B, Lowkey and DJ Excalibah to promote our Don't Hide It campaign. 3. How do you choose the appropriate language for your promotional campaigns? We conducted an extensive piece of research to investigate what consistent branding and methods of communication would be most effective when we bring together a number of services and information sources for children and young people. This involved analysis around ChildLine and NSPCC existing branding, new brand offerings, language, tone of voice, imagery, values, corporate colours etc. As part of this research we consulted with service users (C&YP who use any of the NSPCC services we offer), non service-users, as well as adult professionals, staff, parents etc. This learning is now applied to all of our communications to children and young
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies people so we can ensure the language and imagery we use is appropriate and effective. We also conduct regular but one-off research and testing projects for particular campaigns – please see the case study. 4. How do you protect children from any mistakes or inaccurate information that may be misinterpreted? As above. Testing that is conducted prior to campaign launch ensures all the messaging is clear and accurate for that audience. 5. How do you protect the children that you use in your campaign images? All children who attend photoshoots or filming are accompanied by their parents or carers. The consent form for the photography shoot asks that the parents/carers confirm the child involved has never been on the child protection register. Care is taken to ensure the shoots are conducted within sociable child-friendly hours, not during school time and in a safe environment. 6. Does your organisation have policies regarding online promotion to children included in the company’s overall online policy? The NSPCC has written guidelines that we ask social networking sites to sign, along with risk management processes. These were first developed in 2006 for our Donthideit.com campaign and were based on the government taskforce's guidelines. These are updated with each new campaign, so at least once a year. Any site we work with should at least comply with the taskforce's guidelines and confirm that in writing to us. And wherever moderation is involved, they have to answer our questions about moderation so we can review them before engaging with them. We wouldn't work with a site without some kind of safety net e.g. a contract, a commitment to work within safety guidelines, an official supporter with a direct link to person at a high level, like for AOL, Google, and Yahoo. This safety net is needed in case something should happen on the site and we needed to act very quickly. Promotional content targeting children and young people is reviewed by children and young people before going live so we can check the tone of voice and design. We are always careful about advising young people on how to cover their tracks on the Internet to make sure they can safely visit our sites and services. In addition to this, we have put in place some escalation procedures so that, should we spot any content suggesting a child is at risk, this can be passed on to the right contact and dealt with efficiently 7. What policy do you follow in regards to adding links to other organisations? Websites on pages dedicated to children? The above guidelines apply to linking to other site. The other safeguarding measure in place involves are review of the site by our Public Policy department who can advise on the level of service the site provides
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies and
whether
we
would
like
to
recommend
it
to
children
or
not.
8. Do you promote your organisation in schools? Yes – we promote awareness of ChildLine regularly in primary and secondary schools. 9. If yes, can you give details of this campaign? We run a regular termly poster mailing campaign to all primary and secondary schools in the UK. We send each school approximately 6 age-appropriate ChildLine posters to be put up around the classrooms, along with a letter to the headteacher or PSHE head (depending on which mailing list) explaining the importance of putting the poster up. More recently we have been running online promotions on in-school social networking sites SchoolZone, Superclubs plus and GoldStar Caf, as part of our Idea campaign. Within these sites we ask children to engage creatively with the brand, sending us written work about what ChildLine means to them, what their definition of happiness is, drawing etc. 10. When designing campaigns for schools do you consult with any outside organisations? Yes, we consult with Edcoms, a specialist Education communications agency, and regularly use a specialist ICT consultant with links to the DCFS. Case Study NSPCC’s Don’t Hide It campaign – Spring 06 and 07 As part of the creative development of the advertising, we consulted with a number of NSPCC service users and also with some non-NSPCC service users. Which children and young people were involved? (number, age, where from) Spring 06 8 female service users between the ages of 13 and 18 from Derby and Peterborough 8 non service users (female) between the ages of 12 and 16 from North London and Hertfordshire 8 non service users (male) between the ages of 12 and 16 from North London and Hertfordshire Spring 07 6 female service users between the ages of 13 and 18 from Derby 1 female service user and 2 male service users aged between 13 and 18 from Peterborough 12 non service users (female) between the ages of 12 and 16 from London 12 non service users (male) between the ages of 12 and 16 from London Why did you want to involve children and young people? To ensure that the language, tone and style of the campaign was exactly right so that we could reach out to young people who are being abused in the most effective and efficient way.
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies How were they involved? Spring 06 • Prior to the brief being written we carried out in-depth interviews with service users who had been sexually abused to give us as much insight as possible into our target audience and to help guide us creatively. • The concepts (press and radio) for the advertising were then shared with the same service users as a sense check and also to refine the language, tone and style. • Once the advertising had been produced we then tested all of the elements with focus groups of young people (non-service users) as a final check Spring 07 • The concepts (press, radio, online and TV) for the advertising were shared with service users as a sense check and also to refine the language, tone and style. • Once the advertising had been produced we then tested all of the elements with focus groups of young people (non-service users) as a final check Key messages from children and young people? (what they said) • no child suffering from abuse should be promised an outcome that may not be true • defining what abuse is may be a more relevant for respondents younger than 12 to 16. For sexually abused 12 to 16 year olds the primary purpose of communication is to help address those emotions that are holding them back from speaking out. • Key messages: You’re not alone / Speak to someone who will believe you / It feels good to get it out / You have a right for it to stop • Communication needs to be explicit and unambiguous • Communication to young people needs to demonstrate empathy, understanding, honesty and trustworthiness • Tone of communication needs to be empowering but not forceful or intrusive – young people need to feel that they are in control.
What changed? (What did NSPCC do differently as a result of feedback from the young people?) • We amended the radio scripts considerably for both campaigns as a result of the feedback. For example, service users told us not to be as generic as possible about the identity of the abuser so that the ad would reach out to as many young people as possible but also so that it’s not too traumatic/close to the truth for those young people who are being abused. • We also adapted the copy for the print following the feedback. For example, we added in ‘confidentially’ as the service users emphasised how important it was to make this clear about the ChildLine service. For further information on the NSPCC, visit: www.nspcc.org.uk/
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies Yell The Yellow Woods Challenge
1.
How did you make contact with the schools and enter negotiations to bring about this project? Schools actually have limited contact with Yell. The campaigns are promoted to the schools via direct relationships with their Local Authorities (LAs). Yell communicates with the LAs through long standing relationships with the recycling officers. 2.
How did you formulate the resource packs that are used by teachers participating in this programme? The Yellow Woods Challenge (YWC) team starts preparing the following years' teacher's packs' six months in advance. Feedback from schools is gathered during the previous year's campaign and this is taken into account when the new materials are developed. All activities in the teacher s packs are compiled under the guidance of a national schools' curriculum consultant, together with the Woodland Trusts' educational team. 3. How did you come up with your mascot Kirk? Kirk was born at least a year before the Yellow Woods Challenge was officially launched in 2002. Kirk is a 'mini woodland beast', and the concept of Kirk was developed after a number of brainstorms with our PR agency. 4.
Do you seek permission from parents or carers to have children in promotional photographs? The local authorities, who have direct contact with schools, submit agreement/confirmation forms (compiled by Yell) to participating schools. These forms are sent home with the schoolchildren for their parents to sign and return to school. 5.
Does your organisation have policies regarding online promotion to children included in the company’s overall online policy? Our legal team oversees all privacy policies for the Yellow Woods Challenge website and other Yell websites and ensures they comply with government policy. 6.
When designing content for the Kids' Kabin did you take any of the following in to consideration?
Age of the children you are promoting to? It is targeted mainly at school children aged between five and 11 years old and the materials are linked to the National Curriculum. The language and terminology used?
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies All teachers' packs are printed in Welsh and English. A small amount of the materials (like letters to parents) are printed in Punjabi, Uru and Polish. All materials are written by a professional writer and aimed at our different audiences. We aim to keep our YWC language engaging and easy to read. 7. How do you explain your privacy policy to children and parents? The YWC has been developed in accordance with the ‘Commercial activities in schools – Best practice principles’ http://www.edcoms.com/images_main/ISBA_CA_Schools_principles.pdf We promote this on the YWC website in the 'Parents' Pages' section. 8. What policy do you follow in regards to adding links to other organisations websites on pages dedicated to children? The only external link on the YWC website is The Woodland Trust, the charity associated with YWC. 9.
How do you support messages, statistics or claims made on this website? Historically we have not relied on the YWC website to communicate specific messages, promote or gather statistics. We are currently in the process of revamping the YWC website to make it even more central to the activities of the challenge. It will continue to be closely monitored by our online PR team. Case study Yell The Yellow Woods Challenge The Yellow Woods Challenge is Yell's flagship environmental campaign for schools and is run by Yell, working in partnership with the Woodland Trust and local authorities across the UK. School children simply bring old Yellow Pages directories into school for recycling and every school participating is given a free environmental education pack to teach children about paper, recycling and woodland conservation. Kirk, the Yellow Woods Challenge mascot, helps to bring recycling to life and makes the Challenge fun for children. The Challenge aims to recycle old Yellow Pages directories and reduce demands on landfill, educate schoolchildren about the importance of recycling and conservation, and support the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. Schools participating in the Yellow Woods Challenge compete to win cash prizes from Yell for collecting the most directories per pupil. For every pound Yell awards to schools, a matching pound is given to the Woodland Trust. Introduction The Yellow Woods Challenge is Yell’s flagship schools environmental campaign branded and run by Yellow Pages and the Woodland Trust, working with local authorities across the UK.
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies Objectives Originally launched in 2002, the campaign runs annually from September to August and aims to: • • •
recycle old Yellow Pages directories and save UK landfill educate schoolchildren about the environment and woodland conservation support the Woodland Trust’s ‘Tree For All’ campaign
A long-term vision was set in 2002: • •
to invest £1million in the programme and involve 1 million children in recycling 1 million directories over three years. To date the Yellow Woods Challenge has recycled more than 2 million old Yellow Pages directories and has engaged more than 2 million schoolchildren across the UK.
The Challenge aims to build awareness and enhance Yell’s reputation for best practice corporate responsibility among several key stakeholders: • • • •
local authority recycling officers school teachers parents and local communities local media
Implementation The Challenge is positioned as simple, educational and fun. Schoolchildren simply bring old Yellow Pages directories to school for recycling. Schools receive free toolkits, including eco-educational materials to encourage recycling and help teachers bring environmental messages to life in the classroom. Schools have fun competing against each other locally and nationally. Those collecting the most directories per pupil win cash prizes and for every pound Yell awards to schools, it gives a matching pound to the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. Kirk is the Yellow Woods Challenge mascot. He is a fictional woodland minibeast and features on all educational and promotional materials. Kirk is a key attraction for participating children and media photocalls, when Yell provides him as a costume or large cut out character. Recycling officers organise local Challenges in their authority area with the support of a Challenge manager from Yell. Organisers have a dedicated online guide, containing: • •
information on running a challenge guidance on working with schools and the local media.
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies A PR manager from Yell or the Woodland Trust works with recycling officers to maximize media coverage of all launches and winners’ presentations, providing template press releases, photo call notices and photographers. Prizes are awarded locally and nationally. £700 of cash prizes can be won locally and top recycling schools also win native saplings to plant in their school grounds. All schools are automatically entered into the regional finals where the top three recycling schools in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland win cash prizes. Top schools in each region are awarded £1000. The Woodland Trust receives a matching pound for every pound awarded to schools. In 2008, this amounted to £84,250. The Woodland Trust has used the funds to plant native UK trees as part of ‘Tree For All’ – the Trust’s five year campaign that aims to plant a tree for every child under 16 years old, before September 2009. www.yellow-woods.co.uk is the Challenge website. The site houses zones targeted specifically at children, teachers, councils and parents. Many materials, including curriculum-linked classroom activities, have been moved online to reduce paperbased communications. Evaluation and measurement The Challenge’s topline measures are: • • •
number of participating local authorities, schools and pupils number and tonnage of directories recycled value of positive media coverage
Number of Year councils taken part
Number of schools taken part
Number of pupils Taken part
Number of old Yellow Pages directories collected
Value of Cash positive media prizes to schools coverage (Metrica)
2003
49
915
211,271
208,361
£733k
£34, 300
2004
65
1,391
332,183
313,411
£1.29m
£50, 500
2005
74
1,669
402,489
379,493
£1.34m
£63, 300
2006
84
1,391
484086
465157
£1,53m
£71, 550
2007
101
1,669
556072
475482
£1,55m
£82, 950
2008
95
2,048
525374
433563
£1,53m
£79, 000
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies Woodland Trust The money raised through match funding helps the Trust plant new areas of woodland. In addition to match funding, the Trust benefits from getting its branding and messages into schools via all Yellow Woods Challenge print materials and the website. Creativity The Yellow Woods Challenge is a unique cause-related marketing campaign, involving no purchase. In return for recycling out of date directories, schools receive educational materials, compete to win cash prizes and help support the Woodland Trust. The per pupil collection rule encourages many more small schools to take part because they have a realistic chance of winning. The optional Yellow Pages Art Competition adds another fun dimension to the Challenge. Schoolchildren are encouraged to design and build giant artworks out of old Yellow Pages directories they collect for the chance to win prizes. The artworks also make excellent pictures for local media, generating further awareness of the Challenge.
Janice Hix, corporate partnerships manager at the Woodland Trust, said: “The Yellow Woods Challenge helps us raise valuable funds for our ‘Tree For All’ campaign – the most ambitious children’s tree-planting project ever launched in the UK. In addition, it helps teach children about looking after our native woodland and gives them a hands-on opportunity to grow and plant their own trees from seed.” For further information on the Yellow Woods Challenge, visit: http://www.yellowwoods.co.uk/
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies Case Study Department of Health, Immunisation Branch HPV Vaccination Campaign Background • Over 99% of cervical cancer is caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). The HPV vaccine protects against two particular strains of HPV which are responsible for over 70% of cervical cancer cases. • Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, the second most prevalent in women under 35 in England. It is estimated the vaccine could save the lives of up to 400 women each year. • First to be offered the vaccine from September 2008 were 12-13-year-old girls (school Year 8) and 17-18 year-old-girls (school year 13, if in school) as part of a three-year catch-up programme. • By 2011, all girls aged 12-18-years will have been offered the HPV vaccine, saving a considerable number of women’s lives. Target audiences • 12-13-year-old girls and their parents (especially mums). • 17-18-year-old girls and their parents (especially mums). Objectives • Raise awareness of the introduction of the HPV vaccine across England. • To inform, educate and reassure due to the sensitivities of the subject and the ‘opt in’ nature of the programme. • Build the campaign to maintain visibility throughout the year because three injections are required over a period of six months. • Clarify the age ranges and timings for the vaccination. • Inform older girls who may not be in school that they will be contacted by their local NHS. We also needed to: • Integrate with all other elements of the campaign. • Consider stakeholder engagement (schools, PCTs). • Open up third party partnerships/links. Strategy The introduction of the vaccine was a medical landmark. However, our task was to arm parents with the facts and position the jab as routine. Attitudinal research undertaken before the campaign showed that the key concern of the younger girls (aged 12-13) was that the vaccine would hurt, so this had to be addressed in the messaging for this group of girls. We undertook a high impact media relations programme focusing on consumer lifestyle media to reach the different audiences. Reaching the women’s consumer media was vital, as research showed that mothers were the key decision maker on
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies family health issues. However, ‘tween’ and media that reaches 17-18-year-olds were also key targets to reach the girls. From our previous experience targeting the tween media for other clients, we were aware that content follows a similar format in each issue and that we would have to find homes for the right messages to maximise opportunities for coverage of the vaccine. Coverage was targeted in relevant sections of the magazines such as the health and problem pages. Activity Media briefing From May 2008, we compiled comprehensive briefing materials tailored to different media. For example, there were specific briefing packs for tween media, TV doctors, and for the 17-18s media. We also produced a television news release featuring Dawn Primarolo MP, minister of state for public health, a case study of a mum and daughter from the Manchester pilot scheme of the vaccine and Christine Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer. This was offered to television stations to overcome the issue of different timings of the vaccine introduction across the country. Establishing a bank of case studies was crucial to bring the messaging alive in media. We forged a good relationship with Jo’s Trust, the leading charity for cervical cancer. They introduced us to a group of inspiring women who had been touched by the disease. These case studies were strong supporters of the HPV vaccine, and some of them even had daughters who would be receiving the vaccine from September. Their stories were used in media partnerships, editorial features and also on the HPV website. September launch Coverage for the September launch was secured in key tween titles such as Sugar, Bliss and Mizz magazine and a special report on the vaccine was featured on Newsround. This complimented the widespread coverage targeting mums in the women’s media. In August, Jade Goody’s announcement that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer spurred further media interest in the topic and opened up new opportunities to sensitively deliver messaging in celebrity focused magazines such as Look and New! which helped reach the 17-18-year-old girls. Roadshow As the 17-18-year-old girls were a ‘harder to reach’ group because they are not all in schools, we took a different approach. Working closely with Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), we created a standout roadshow that visited 15 shopping centre or high street locations across England and took the message directly to young girls. Each location was chosen for its proximity to retailers that appeal to young girls, e.g. New Look, Primark, and Boots.
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies The roadshow vehicle was a pink vintage VW camper van painted with the campaign visual device (see attached photos). A trained experiential marketing team delivered information on the vaccine directly to girls and their parents. An added incentive to encourage the girls to interact with the team was an onboard photo booth inside the van where girls could have their photos taken with their friends and printed onto a postcard to take away. The PCTs from each region were involved from the start to ensure local nurses could be on hand to give further advice and reassurance to the girls in each location. Outcomes • Coverage to date has been 91% favourable with opportunities to see totalling 83 million parents and young girls. • The uptake for the vaccine amongst 12-13-year-old girls was 78% in December 2008. • There have been 79 pieces of coverage in consumer lifestyle media across all audiences to date, including: o Nine pieces of launch coverage achieved in key tween media targets such as Sugar, Mizz, Bliss and Newsround. o Eight pieces of coverage in 17-18s media, including New! magazine, Closer and mykindaplace.com. • The roadshow reached 15,000 young girls and their parents and we distributed 6,500 information leaflets. Ongoing activity The campaign is ongoing with reminder activity raising awareness around timings for the third and final dose of the vaccine which is due in the spring.
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies 12-13s coverage (September launch)
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies 17-18s coverage (October 2008 – January 2009)
The Roadshow (September – October 2008)
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies For
further
information
on
the
HPV
vaccination
campaign
visit
www.immunisation.nhs.uk
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies
National Schools Partnership and LeapFrog Toys
Developing Successful School Partnership Programmes Nearly all teachers and parents encourage and support companies working in partnership with schools as long as the campaigns and projects deliver suitable and exciting benefits for pupils, schools and families. Now in its 5th year, National Schools Partnership helps companies, charities and government-funded bodies meet their marketing and CSR objectives whilst having the desired effect and appropriate engagement within the schools community. As a specialist marketing agency, we combine expertise in both education and marketing, focusing on how best to meet the needs of schools and communicate the CSR and marketing objectives of brands, charities and public sector bodies. When creating School Partnership Programmes there are a set of simple rules to follow that ensure not only a successful campaign but guarantee that companies, charities and the public sector tread the right path. The school rules created by National Schools Partnership are taken from ‘Best Practice Principles for Commercial Activities in Schools’ developed by ISBA and the Consumers’ Association (CA) and endorsed by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). National Schools Partnership 10 School Rules: 1. All School Partnership Marketing activities should provide a clear benefit to participating schools. 2. Schools should always have the choice to opt in, or out, of any activities. 3. Any level of branding must be appropriate to the activity. 4. Companies should ensure that schools are aware of the social or commercial objectives of all School Partnership Marketing activities. 5. Expressions of opinion should be distinguished from statements of fact. 6. Resources or materials should not encourage unhealthy, unsafe or unlawful activities. 7. Resources or materials should respect diversity of gender, race, disability and cultural issues and reflect contemporary UK society.
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies 8. Activities should, where possible, be developed in partnership with teachers, pupils, parents and education experts. 9. Where possible, the company should seek permission before forwarding materials to the school. 10. All activities should respect the unique relationship between parents, their children and schools. Case study National Schools Partnership and LeapFrog Toys
National Schools Partnership created the Tag “Love to Read” programme for LeapFrog Toys as part of the launch of the new product ‘Tag Reading System’. Extensive research was conducted with teachers, schools, pupils and parents to ensure that the programme content, messages, imagery and tone of voice was appropriate for all audiences. The programme was a literacy initiative based on the school curriculum for Foundation Stage and Key Stage One. The Tag “Love to Read” programme aimed to build passion for reading amongst children, provide support for teachers in the classroom and tips for parents to encourage a greater level of involvement in their child’s reading development. The programme was launched in October 2009 with 3335 schools participating. The initiative not only entertained children but educated them with eight “ Love to Read” interactive reading games and eight activity games that could be played in the classroom and at home. A range of resources were produced which included a free booklet for every parent in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 with information and tips on encouraging children to read and practical information to help parents encourage further development at home. This programme, along with all campaigns devised by National Schools Partnership is created working in conjunction with education consultants, teachers and headteachers. All material produced is age specific, related to the relevant Key Stage and linked to the National Curriculum. Achievements of “Love to Read” 80% of teachers sent the booklet home reaching over 300,000 families 78% of teachers used the “ Love to Read “ resources 85% of parents felt the parent booklet useful 80% of teachers aware of Leapfrog as the sponsor
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Best Practice Guide for Communicating with Children Case Studies “Excellent booklet for parents – spot on! Software will certainly be used by the teachers and pupils.” Mark, Fairfield Primary School “The games on the website – the children really enjoyed [them].” C E Watson, Old Dee Primary “Anything which gives parents a reminder of how they can support reading at home is good. Like the links to the internet games. Kate, The Acorns Infant School “Very child friendly and good progression through the levels. My class (YR) enjoyed the ‘cartoon’ characters – it inspired them to want to do more.” Julie, Meadows Primary School “Great – especially the ‘Once at school’ paragraph reminding parents how important their role is. I will definitely be using the games with my reception class.” Nicole, Nether Stowley Primary School For further information on the www.nationalschoolspartnership.com
Nationals
Schools
Partnership,
visit
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