Knife crime is increasingly becoming a huge problem in the UK, and when we were briefed on this campaign Leicester recorded the second highest rate for this violent crime in the country.
As part of the wider “#LivesNotKnives” campaign Arch were instructed by Leicester City Council, in partnership with Leicester City Football Club’s ‘Leicester City in the Community’ to create a hard-hitting short film that would resonate with the key audience: young men aged 13-24.
We created the concept with the core message: “you don’t get a second chance to reverse a bad decision”. Our team sourced the location and talent, bringing everything together for a two day shoot, which we then directed, filmed and edited.
The video was promoted with a paid Instagram campaign. We created a highly impactful teaser video for the short-film. This combined clever editing and music selection to really engage the target audience with an advert that created tension and intrigue.
We were very careful during this process to consult and interview young people to capture a true sense of realism, and to ensure our message set the right tone.
The Instagram campaign performed well. With nearly 1M impressions and a reach of over 650,000 men in Leicester between the ages of 13-24. We had a high engagement rate of 8.83%. That’s 5.5 times greater than the average engagement levels on Instagram.
It’s vitally important that we engage young people in work to prevent knife crime. Our youth service has worked closely with Arch Creative, and young people themselves to produce a hard-hitting film that brings home the reality of knife crime.
Kirk Master
Assistant city mayor for neighbourhoods and deputy police and crime commissioner
Leicester City Council
