Knife City

Background

The Metropolitan Police Service tasked Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy with developing a campaign to dissuade teenagers from carrying knives by spelling out the consequences of doing so. This audience is notoriously difficult to reach with traditional communications. They are cynical towards ‘public information’ messages and particularly resistant to those coming from the Police. They feel that carrying a knife is a legitimate and necessary form of protection and have incredible faith in their own immortality.

Idea

Clearly a conventional approach was not going to reach or connect with this audience. Instead, MCBD developed a ‘Trojan horse’ to carry their message. They created a mock computer game DVD called ‘Knife City’. At first sight, it appears to be a demo for a violent video game, complete with a realistic cover, gritty graphics and pounding music. However, as the lead character stabs his victim, the action cuts from animation to real footage, which shows the assailant in police custody. The demo ends with the strapline: ‘Carrying a knife. It's not a game.’

Testimonials from real victims, their families and surgeons were included as extra features on the DVD.

25,000 ‘Knife City’ DVDs were distributed to teenagers by Kiss and Choice FM street teams across 12 London boroughs. Kiss FM and Choice FM DJs encouraged listeners to go to the station websites and download the ‘Knife City’ demo for free, plugging it as a genuine new video game. The DJs raised the profile of the issue via a series of anti-knife infomercials, conveying the message in a credible way. Choice FM also ran an anti-knife artwork competition, which was promoted on-air and online.

A microsite, www.itsnotagame.org, was created. It included the Knife City demo, a video download featuring real stories of knife crime victims (from the BBC's Panorama programme) and a feedback page. The Knife City demo was also positioned as ‘game of the month’ on Kiss and Choice FM's websites and was made available as a free download. A viral of ‘Knife City’ was also sent to around 40,000 people and Metropolitan Police schools liaison officers and youth workers distributed 30,000 anti-knife flyers.

Results

The dedicated microsite received 25,000 unique visitors as of March 2006. Of those who saw ‘Knife City’, 83% of respondents gave a positive rating, with 31% saying it was ‘excellent’; 54% of respondents said the creative concept was ‘an effective way of getting the message across’ and 30% said they would discuss the campaign with friends.

The campaign received media coverage and was featured on BBC London, ITV London, Sky News, Richard & Judy and news and gaming websites. Related articles also appeared in the Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph and regional press. Most importantly, over the course of the campaign, actionable calls to the Met about knife crimes rose by 30% compared to the previous year. The Home Office adopted the campaign and distributed a further 10,000 DVDs nationwide.

Target Audience

London teenagers in 10 London Boroughs that think it’s ok to carry a knife

Size

25,000 DVDs distributed, 40,000 reached by email/viral, 30,000 flyers