This year’s White Ribbon Day helped end the hesitation around intervening in acts of violence against women, engaging three times more Australians than ever before, thanks to independent agency March One.
The agency was briefed to refresh the current White Ribbon Day creative. After consulting with White Ribbon ambassadors, contacts across policy and frontline services and the community, March One discovered that while awareness of the issue was strong, Aussies didn’t know what to do with the information.
March One owner and creative director Ben Coverdale said: “Australians wanted to make a difference in the fight to end violence against women, so we designed an information kit called the STOP kit to give them the tools to do something about it.
“In many ways, we were reacting to the tidal wave of support for women’s rights following the Harvey Weinstein scandal.”
Coverdale said he STOP kit outlines ways to spot the signs of violence, offer support and create change to derail the cycle of offending.
“We were able to develop a tool to improve on what the White Ribbon team were already doing well, and add value, rather than going down the expensive route of starting again,” he said.
“Effectively, we were giving Australians something they were asking for – the tools to help. It’s that simple.”
The STOP kit – an acronym for see, talk, offer support and prevent – was designed as a brochure, wallet card and digital download.
Under each of the key pillars, action steps were provided to help Aussies recognise and deal with the emotionally-charged circumstances that surround domestic violence.
“Importantly, the STOP kit provides Australians with the numbers and locations where they can access professional assistance and support,” Coverdale said.
The campaign also asked Aussies to make an oath to stand up against violence towards women in an effort to engage and create a community of support for victims of abuse.
March One owner and managing director Greg Bechly said the agency deployed social media campaigns in support of the White Ribbon Day and STOP kit that included Facebook advertising, cross-promotion across Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
It also launched a radio campaign across the eastern states and a digital advertising campaign across News Corp assets, all aimed at increasing the oath commitments and facilitation of STOP kit downloads.
“The campaign resulted in three times more Australians visiting the website, over 50 per cent more Australian being reached on Facebook with a 93 per cent engagement growth, a reach uplift of 240 per cent on the Twitter channel, and over 5,700 Australians taking the oath,” Bechly said.
“The numbers speak for themselves, and importantly, the campaign gave critical meaning and genuine life-changing advice to those wanting to make difference.”
White Ribbon Australia’s marketing and communication manager, Eliza Arrowsmith, said: “This year’s campaign was incredibly successful because it closed the loop in our communications by educating Australians on what they can do once they have identified the issue of violence in their life or that of friends and family.
“The STOP kit has ironically created the impetus for Australians to stand up and stop the cycle of violence against women.”