Shameless blag, but we are about to pitch some creative ideas for a quite large project for our local council aimed at communicating to vulnerable adults, their carers, friends, family, neighbours etc. so they know what to do if they think someone is in danger from carers, doorsteppers, ill-health etc.

In order we can understand what people want, how would you expect to be spoken to in the form of leaflets, posters, website, radio ads etc? So far I can't get past the image of someone in danger with a big headline saying something like 'Has your vulnerable neighbour not taken their milk in for the last few days? Call 0800 000000' but I am sure there are more/better ways people would like to be spoken to.

Any helpful advice, experiences etc would be most gratefully accepted.

MTFU?

That phone number doesnt work.

/WTF? should you be pitching at all if you have no expertise in the area? Its a minefield of PC and legalities.

alas, belm.com is no longer with us

mastiles – that sounds like a very wide brief. Are you looking a specific target group? Or is it general adult’s i.e +18
Also vulnerable people tend not to recognise/ admit their vulnerability and tend not report it themselves, rather it is those around them that report it.
Adult protection is not part of my day to day work, but I do work worth older people with mental health problems so it is something that I have awareness if it helps

Jeremy – we are pitching creative ideas to the professionals at the council – it is for them to make decisions on what is acceptable. I am just trying to understand the market. I am not aware of too many qualified specialists now working in the creative field.

And yes, it is a very wide brief – typical local council. See my OP for target groups – we, and the council, are aware it is not just the vulnerable that we would be talking to.

And yes – adult is anyone 18+ to OAPs with any reason to be at risk, either physical or mental.

Have a look at POVA,legislation, PROTECTION OF VULNERABLE ADULTS.

Lots of forms,lots of creepy people saying basicly nothing worthwhile,and then it gets brushed under the carpet,because these same people decide thats how it is.

I know i was there through one of these cases,total and absolute waste of time.

Tell the local council to spend the cash on something worthwhile,like fixing potholes.

See that the problem for me – your looking at such a diverse group what appropriate for say young homeless (physical, emotional, sexual, drug abuse) is not the same for say people with dementia (self care, financial, physical) – sources of information will vary – younger / middle age groups may use the internet, while older people my prefer to be talked too
Basically different target groups will need different information presented in different ways about different types of abuse – a one size fits all approach will not fit anybody

Tell me about it. The current one leaflet the council uses has a picture of a lake on it because they didn't want to alienate particular group so instead they alienated all groups. Still we are trying to understand the brief so we can give best advice on communication streams for different target groups and different scenarios.

But you certainly understand the problems as we are seeing them. Initial thoughts are around different streams such as local radio ads, microsite off the council/fire service/PCT websites etc. on top of the obvious leaflets/posters etc.

Ohh and another thing TJ – we do work extensively with the NHS and specifically our local mental health trust, we are just trying to understand this particular market, but I do feel we have some relevant experience.

The Social Service dept must have an adult protection lead – could you not speak to them?

This may help

Thanks for that – we are presenting to the head of social services at the council but we want to be able to display an understanding through our execution of creative ideas as well as strategy which is why I was asking for any help that we can get to better communicate to their very diverse target audiences.

blurred crowd shot?

That is what it will end up being if we are not careful and a committee gets hold of it.

One of my remits is as an investigating officer for our L.A under vulnerable adults legislation. Awareness raising is an L.A priority with us just now too. I'm posting from my phone just now so can't type loads. Will have a think and reply tomorrow. Main issues of prob with one size fits all campaigns have been mentioned.

how would you expect to be spoken to in the form of leaflets, posters, website, radio ads etc?

Do you know a vulnerable adult who might need help ?

Call 0800 000000

Would do me.

Yeah, which is why we are looking at sub-catogorising it. There simply wouldn't be the budget to do targeted campaigns to each and every group as it is only local council level to direct people to a local service.

Most of the ones I have seen are either the generic 'abuse' type ones, with tag lines such as 'it's not just children that are abused' etc and the the call centre numbers for the respective SSD's. Then you get the ones that focus on the different types of abuse; financial, neglect etc so that possible 'referrer's' can get a bit more idea of what to look out for. The most recent ones seem to focus more on abuse rather than the general 'just vulnerable' folk. Art work wise they tend to be pretty uninspiring, council logo (and associated partner agencies) and colour schemes with plenty of shots of pensive old folk looking out of rain soaked windows, and people with physical and learning disabilities going about their business, but the overiding theme is not too much smiling. Throwing in the odd concerned looking family member or carer seems to work, especially with their hands on the shoulder or touching the cheek of the victim. I've never really seen one that captures the reality, so to be honest I'd go with Ernie's approach and be direct.

Do you know a vulnerable adult who might need help ?

Call 0800 000000

That would work, simple at to the point. Just get it out on as many media formats as possible, then back it up with the resorces to deal with the work load.

Unfortunatly in local government there are people who need to justfy there jobs. So it will end up being a 50 page "document" that no one reads, let alone understands 🙄

Last year I reported a vulnerable adult – a 98 year old woman living on her own. The obvious thing for me to do, was to phone the local council – which I did.

Unfortunately it was concerning her housing situation (local developers had started to demolish the building her flat was situated in) and no one was quite sure who should deal with it. I was shuttled from one department to the other, including social services, planning, and environmental health, with stuff like "you need to speak to so-and-so who is out of the office – can you call back in half an hour?"

It took all morning, but to be fair, everyone I spoke to was highly concerned and sympathetic. And when it was finally resolved, a guy from the council phoned me up to personally thank me – which was nice.

But I couldn't help thinking that I should have been able to speak to just one person (although I accept that it was an usual situation) who could have sorted it all out, whilst I carried on trying to earn a living in a recession struck construction industry (I was on diabolical price work at the time)

So I would therefore concentrate on that – making it easy to report any concerns for vulnerable adults. And not worry so much about presentation.

Tell the local council to spend the cash on something worthwhile,like fixing potholes.

Here here!

Our roads here are looking positively third world!

Took them 9 months to fix a few bigguns on the main road after the frosts last winter. A load more have opened up recently. Glad I don't often have to ride a bike on them!

As well as POVA, read up on the mental health act and the mental capacity act. Bit of light reading.

So I would therefore concentrate on that – making it easy to report any concerns for vulnerable adults. And not worry so much about presentation.

Agreed – but to effectively get the message across, the campaign has to communicate with its target audience(s) – it has to engage them quickly and ensure they are in no doubt about the message. I am not going to go back with recommendations for clever creative poster campaigns, I want to go back with simple, relevant and effective messages that will be highly visible in crowded positions such as hospital and doctors' waiting room notice boards, throw-away local government door-to-door publications etc.

Simply having a big poster (the norm is only to allow an A3 'space' in most public spaces) saying 'Call 0800 00000000 etc' may look effective on a designer's screen or in a presentation, but will it effectively communicate when in context? I am not sure it would.

Is it just me, or is anyone else concerned that you're about to "pitch some creative ideas" on a subject that you appear to have little knowledge and no practical experience of ?.
Asking advice about something as important as this on what is ostensibly a mountain bike forum would appear lazy at best, and if your "creative ideas" are accepted, well, let's not even go there.

Not just you mitch.

As a creative, it is my job to understand the requirements of any given project, be that communicating with vulnerable adults or selling luxury holidays. I do not need to be an expert in every field I do work for, I am simply an expert in using images, type, copy, layout, colour to communicate a message.

If I do not have an in-depth knowledge in a field, I do research so I can try to understand it so I can better recommend techniques to communicate THEIR policy in a succinct manner.

Put simply I am not giving them strategic recommendations on policy, I am just making pretty pictures.

This is going to sound very shite but these people your pitching to may not give two hoots about the actual social issue rather they want to be seen to give a shite. In fact often things government/council related is just that. So if you want the business perhaps have a think about that.

If not, and along similar lines I saw an ad at a station once it was to do with motor neurons charity featuring a sufferer and a quote by her. The image was very hard hitting.

I agree tails – there is a possibility that may be the case as two of the three are marketing specialists (although working closely with SS) the third is on the professional panel for Social Services.

I don't think the angle will need to be too hard-hitting like the example you gave though as it isn't to raise awareness of the problems per se, rather to raise awareness of the call to action.

Not an easy brief really 😕

Not an easy brief really

No but that's your job to solve it. what are your employees saying/thinking.

Absolutely – which was why I was wondering if anyone had any experience so I could go back to the initial pitch armed with some knowledge. The real work wouldn't actually start until after the pitch if we are successful – then I would be able to talk to people in Social Services directly and devise a campaign that would hopefully answer their brief.

Many thanks to all for the input and help one and all – I have just heard we have won the three-way pitch and they were very pleased with the creative directions we presented, which were far superior to the other agencies and showed that we had gained an understanding of the challenges they have.

In their words…
'We could roll with either of your concepts without a single change – they are spot on'

🙂

nice one