COSLA
EXCELLENCE
AWARDS
2011
2011 APPLICATION FORM
Please refer to the ‘2011 Guidance for Applicants’ before completing this application
form.
The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on Friday 8 October 2010. Further
guidance is available at http://www.awards.cosla.gov.uk. Submission arrangements
are detailed at the end of this application form.
The application form is split over four sections to reflect the assessment criteria, and to
facilitate the leeting process. It is up to you to decide the content and length of each
section, but your application must not exceed three pages in total (excluding the
cover pages).
CATEGORY TITLE Excellence in Adversity
Project Name Joint Internet Safety TV Advertising Campaign
Lead Organisation Renfrewshire Council
Department/ Team Press & Media Relations Team, Chief Executive’s Department
Participant or Partner
Names
Award coordinator
Contact details
1. North Lanarkshire Council
2. South Lanarkshire Council
3. West Dunbartonshire Council
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Pauline Moss
Pauline.moss@renfrewshire.gov.uk 0141 840 3611
Can we publish this application form on our website?
FOR INTERNAL USE
YES / NO
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
In one short paragraph please describe this project and what it has achieved.
We will use this in any future publicity material.
The Joint Internet Safety TV Advertising Campaign brought together four local authorities to create a two week
public awareness campaign with a reach and power far beyond what was available using local press
advertising, but with a comparable cost. The powerful TV campaign warned children and young people about
the dangers of posting their personal information on the Internet. Some 60% of 13 to 17 year olds have
personal profiles on social networking sites and the Child Protection and Online Exploitation Centre (CEOP) has
identified self-posted content as an area of urgent concern. The campaign reached 1.46million people and
increased the number of visits to the CEOP Thinkuknow website (www.thinkuknow.co.uk), in the West of
Scotland, by an average of 850%. The Thinkuknow website contains age appropriate information for parents,
children and young people about protecting themselves from identity theft, cyber bullying and online sexual
predators.
PLANNING
· a clear rationale, defined processes and focus on stakeholder needs
· contributes to organisation’s goals, community plan and SOA, and national policy context
Within the Single Outcome Agreement, Outcome 8 highlights the goal of improving the life chances for
children, young people and families at risk. Within Renfrewshire, child protection is identified as a corporate
priority promoted through the vision that it is everyone’s job to make sure children are safe.
The proposal also fits into both the Chief Executive’s Service’s and Social Work Services’ Service Improvement
Plans (SIP) which highlight the need for joint action to protect vulnerable children. Priority Outcome 3 of the
Chief Executive’s SIP aims to generate, ‘Measurable improvements in community safety,’ through, ‘focused
partnership activities.’ Social Work’s High Level Outcome 1 aims to ensure, ‘Vulnerable adults and children live
as safely as possible in the community.’
A key mechanism for realising these goals is the Renfrewshire Child Protection Committee (RCPC), a
comprehensive partnership working arrangement which includes representatives from: the Children’s Panel,
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, the Procurator Fiscal’s Office, the Renfrewshire Community Health Partnership,
Renfrewshire Council, the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, Strathclyde Fire & Rescue, Strathclyde
Police and voluntary organisations.
Within this policy context there was also the recognition that all council’s spend money on public awareness
advertising, often publicising the same issues. But individual councils rarely use TV advertising, despite this
being the most powerful medium available. The chief reasons are the perception that it is too expensive and
that its coverage is too wide for an individual council’s purposes.
However, the cost of advertising on television has fallen dramatically. The use of ‘micro regions’ in terms of
programming means it can also be targeted more precisely than ever before. The STV Glasgow transmission
area contains 2.3million adults – 60% of the Scottish total. It stretches from Fort William in the North to Ayr in
the South with Stirling, Airdrie and East Kilbride forming the Eastern border.
Adopting a joint approach to publicising common messages means TV advertising becomes a realistic option,
particularly for the 12 West of Scotland local authorities. Such an approach also demonstrates best value and
effective partnership working at a time when all council’s are facing severe budgetary pressures. The two week
campaign cost each local authority £7,350 and reached 1.46million people with 500,000 of them seeing the
advert at least three times. In comparison, four, 1/3 page Adult Protection adverts in one of Renfrewshire’s
local papers, The Gazette, cost £2,163. The Gazette has an audited circulation of 10,178.
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Research shows that 95% of people in Renfrewshire know who to call if they are concerned about a child’s
safety. With this in mind it was decided to target a specific child protection issue as a proof of concept for joint
local authority TV advertising.
An initial proposal was presented to the Chief Officer’s Group of the RCPC which led to a pilot project being
developed on the theme of Internet safety. This was then taken to the Clyde Valley Integrated Health and
Social Care Collaborative – a partnership of west of Scotland councils and health boards designed to explore
and implement joint working.
DELIVERING
· implemented in all relevant areas and across all the required stakeholders
· carried out in a structured and logical way , using robust and sustainable methods
The two week advertising campaign was specifically booked to encompass the semi-finals and live finals of
Britain’s Got Talent. Last year Britain’s Got Talent was the most watched programme in Scotland. The 48 slots
also took in other peak viewing programmes such as Coronation Street, news bulletins and the World Cup
2010 highlights. Young people are a notoriously difficult target audience to reach. The programme and choice
of associated slots delivered the key audience profile of young people and their parents watching
simultaneously. The creative work for the advertisements was prepared by STV’s production team and rapidly
approved by all the partner local authorities and the relevant Child Protection Committees initially at a face-toface meeting and then through email.
The advertisement features a number of children and young people with their names, ages and where they
live on sandwich boards around their necks, whilst they walk around in urban areas. The narration says, “You
wouldn’t do this in real life so why do it online?”
Additional campaign materials were created from stills taken from the advertisements. The TV advertising
campaign was integrated into the existing child protection activities including work on a practical online guide
for parents on how to switch on the parental controls features available on search engines and Internet
browsers. The adverts are now also being screened in the common, social areas of Renfrewshire schools.
An important part of the campaign was linking into the resources provided by the Child Exploitation and Online
Protection Centre - the national child internet safety agency of the Police and Government. CEOP has
identified young people posting their personal details and, sometimes explicit, images of themselves online as
a major cause for concern. Worryingly 25% of young people have gone to meet someone in real life that they
have only previously encountered on the Internet. Developing and improving communications with young
people is a key component of the Renfrewshire Child Protection Committee’s Improvement Plan and the RCPC
Communications Strategy - Objective 3: Increase awareness of child protection services among children and
young people and encourage them to report concerns.
Working with CEOP also provided a range of practical benefits. It has already collated a wealth of information
on Internet safety. The information is clearly and attractively presented in age appropriate web pages covering
5-7 year olds, 8-10s, 11-16s, parents and teachers. Using the CEOP Thinkuknow web address as the fulfilment
mechanism for the advert also removed the need to list either individual phone numbers or web addresses for
each of the participating councils, making it as easy as possible to respond to the call to action.
The linkage with CEOP also meant baseline information was available before the adverts were transmitted so
that their impact could be fully and accurately assessed and reviewed.
INNOVATION +
LEADING PRACTICE
· Demonstrates leading practice
· Achieves genuine innovation or new ways of working
The strategic concept behind this project is that councils can work collaboratively on key communications
tasks. By working together they can access media opportunities which would otherwise be uneconomic for an
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individual authority. The airtime for the Britain’s Got Talent package cost £29,400 which is beyond the
resources of an individual Child Protection Committee.
The Joint Internet Safety Advertising Campaign was essentially a proof of concept. A similar project is already
underway for raising awareness about Adult Protection issues. So far 10 local authorities have indicated that
they are willing to take part. There are numerous other effectively national issues which local authorities are
trying to promote for example, recycling and fostering and adoption. Similarly, community planning partners
can also be involved to promote joint issues such as fire safety amongst vulnerable adults. This type of
approach allows the maximum impact in a cost effective and affordable way.
The advert was well received by the media and has been nominated for a Scottish Advertising Award – a
significant achievement given the advert was made in 10 days for less than £5,000. The campaign also proved
an effective mechanism for generating editorial coverage which further highlighted the issue in the media.
The logical extension of this approach would be a wider sharing of communications plans and priorities
between local authorities to exploit similar opportunities to the Britain’s Got Talent package.
RESULTS + IMPACT
· a convincing mix of customer perception and internal performance measures
· clear line of sight to the delivery of the Single Outcome Agreement
· a full range of relevant results showing improvement over time
The advertising campaign was broadcast during the most watched programme in Scotland. The campaign was
seen by 1.46million people with nearly half a million people seeing the adverts at least three times, thereby
successfully achieving its aims of raising public awareness of internet safety issues.
Figures supplied by CEOP about visits to the Thinkuknow website showed a 19% increase in traffic UK wide
during the period the advertising campaign was running. In comparison the figures for the west of Scotland,
where the adverts were transmitted, showed an average increase of 852% in traffic to the Thinkuknow
website.
Individual figures are available for web traffic to the Thinkuknow site for some specific west of Scotland towns:
Stirling +39%, Coatbridge +220%, Greenock +1,800%, Clydebank +6%, Paisley +225%, Rutherglen +200%,
Uddingston +567%, Bellshill +913%, Hamilton +3,770%, Ayr +1,654%.
In addition the campaign generated significant media coverage which reinforced the message. The campaign
was covered in the Evening Times as a double page spread, the Paisley Daily Express and The Gazette. The
same size of advertising space for a full-colour, double page spread in the Evening Times run of paper would
have cost £7,178.64 or £16,572.60 in the public notices section. The Evening Times has a circulation of 63,803
and a readership of 179,000. The full advert was also placed on the Evening Times website which has 264,556
users.
The Paisley Daily Express used the story as a page lead and then did a follow up which was also a page lead.
The cost of this space as a paid for advertisement would have been £2,451.80. The PDE's circulation is 9,528.
The Gazette also used the story as a page lead. The cost as advertising space would have been £540.75. The
Gazette has a weekly circulation of 10,178.
Significant savings were realised through this project. The total equivalent advertising cost for the editorial
space generated would have been between £10,171.19 and £19,565.15 depending on where the ads had been
placed. Clearly this is just for the Renfrewshire area with the other councils in the project achieving their own
local coverage.
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Next steps
 Have you answered the assessment criteria set out in the guidance?
 Is your application form 3 pages or less? (anything more, including
appendices, will be automatically rejected)
 Has your application form been authorised by an appropriate person?
 Have you indicated whether you wish the application form to be
published?
Submitting your application
Please email your application by 8 October to:
Category 1 submissions
exawards2011-1@cosla.gov.uk
Category 2 submissions
exawards2011-2@cosla.gov.uk
Category 3 submissions
exawards2011-3@cosla.gov.uk
Category 4 submissions
exawards2011-4@cosla.gov.uk
Category 5 submissions
exawards2011-5@cosla.gov.uk
Category 6 submissions
exawards2011-6@cosla.gov.uk
Category 7 submissions
exawards2011-7@cosla.gov.uk
Queries surrounding the submission of applications can be made to:
Adam Stewart (adam.stewart@cosla.gov.uk / 0131 474 9275)