Our Work
National Police Wellbeing Service
A 12-month comms programme to reach a new audience
A 12-month comms programme to reach a new audience
A role in policing is tough, and not just for the person doing the job.
The Police Covenant was introduced in 2022. It’s a symbol of recognition (and action) from government to ensure people working in policing aren’t disadvantaged by their role. And nor are their families.
Oscar Kilo, The National Police Wellbeing Service – the organisation helping police forces build brilliant wellbeing support for police officers, staff and their loved ones – came to us to engage a brand new audience, the families of people working in UK policing.
How do you engage an audience you don’t have any links with? One that doesn’t share lots of common characteristics. One that might not want to hear from you?
Finding our audience wasn’t the only challenge, we needed to engage them with the right message. One that’s meaningful, doesn’t minimise feelings and also doesn’t fan the flames of frustration. One that gives support but doesn’t over-promise.
Over twelve months we developed and delivered a communications programme built on insight and with behaviour change principles at the heart.
Our insight gathering and stakeholder engagement revealed that the simple act of acknowledging how hard it can be, is powerful. It helps people feel less alone, and more seen. Saying “it’s tough”, out loud, is the start of change.
This became the central pillar of our programme – a springboard to connect people with resources that provide practical help. Translating that into moving creative and executing the right tactics and channel strategy led to extraordinary results.
A few highlights:
- A series of eight open-access expert guides on key issues facing policing families – like sleep when you live with a shift worker and how to talk to children about police work.
- Case studies that normalise saying out loud that it’s tough for families.
- The THANK YOU film, which used real stories from policing families to show appreciation for all they do.
– The film was watched by 35k people (this isn’t people who’ve seen the film in their feed, it’s people who’ve stopped to watch)
– 5k people (and counting) have liked, commented and shared.
– Police forces across the UK have shared it with people in their local area and celebs like Dr Sian Williams and Nick Knowles have backed the campaign.
- Entries flooding in from policing families (4,462 so far) for our ‘once upon a time’ give-away which included a police dog soft toy and copy of Red Robber Raid – a children’s book penned by a member of police staff which helps parents and carers explain to children why a role in policing has an impact on family life.
- Launching new Facebook and Instagram channels and growing LinkedIn by 60%.
