The Northern Ireland Community Safety Unit is about delivering local solutions to local problems that have been identified by local people.
Tackling crime, fear of crime and anti-social behaviour is at the core of the Unit’s Safety Strategy, with fear of crime amongst older people being identified as one of nine key issues.
What did our client need to achieve?
Older people have been found to report a greater fear of crime than younger age groups. And very often with older age comes poorer health and it is among those whose health is not so good that we find those whose quality of life is most negatively impacted by the fear of crime.
One of the ways such fear of crime manifests itself is older people being wary –afraid even – to open their door when someone calls.
Our client needed to create some perspective by empowering older people to feel safer in their homes by showing simple precautions they can take when opening their doors to strangers.
How did we help them achieve it?
With such a potentially vulnerable audience, great care was needed to make sure that the message was brought to life in a reassuring and sensitive way.
TV and press were identified as the two key media to reach out to this audience. TV provided at-home intervention within the context of popular programming; and press helped deliver the finer detail.
How do we know it worked?
Independently conducted post-campaign research showed high overall campaign awareness. Crucially, 45% of people aged 65 and over who had seen the ad indicated that their approach to callers to their home had changed (for the better).
