Warwickshire County Council (WCC) has created a series of adverts to communicate to a younger audience during the Covid-19 pandemic. The council has been sharing important messages in line with gov...
Warwickshire County Council (WCC) has created a series of adverts to communicate to a younger audience during the Covid-19 pandemic. The council has been sharing important messages in line with government guidance targeted at young people in Warwickshire across a variety of platforms.
In April the council launched the campaign which was in line with the governments messaging of staying at home to save lives. The adverts, encouraging young people to stay at home to protect others, reached over 115,000 children and young people across Warwickshire and were seen by young people over 240,000 times on Snapchat.
At the same time the council asked young people to make a pledge to stay home and share clips and images of what they would be doing indoors. Warwickshire Youth Forum rose to the challenge and responded with a video compilation of pledges featuring young people from around the county.
After the success of the first phase of the campaign, the council created more adverts around the Government’s revised messaging to stay alert and control the virus. These have been shared on social media and advertised via Spotify as well, in the hope to engage with a broader audience of young people.
The campaign complements a range of existing support available for young people during the pandemic. Youth workers and social workers at the council have been working tirelessly to find new ways of keeping young people connected during this time and making sure that they have support from the council if they need it.
Councillor Jeff Morgan, Portfolio Holder for Children and Families said:
“We put children and young people at the heart of everything we do, however we appreciate that many of them may not think or choose to look to their local council for advice and information.
“Our usual platforms for communicating messages to the public are mostly followed by adult members of our community so we recognised the importance of communicating to and supporting young people throughout this crisis in different ways during the pandemic. We therefore explored new advertising channels to reach a young audience.”
John Coleman, Assistant Director for Children and Families at Warwickshire County Council added:
“Younger people are less likely to show symptoms of the virus so we can imagine for them it has been very difficult to stay at home and avoid meeting up with their friends. We hope that by targeting some useful and informative adverts at young people in Warwickshire, it will raise awareness of the guidelines and consequences of passing on the virus to others who may be more vulnerable.
“We hope for those who have seen the adverts, the message resonates with them and they become a role model amongst their peers by staying at home as much as possible, keeping their distance and thinking of others.”
For more information on the support and advice available for children and families in Warwickshire visit warwickshire.gov.uk/childrenandfamilies
If you are aged 13 to 21 and you have seen any of the adverts run by Warwickshire County Council, they would love to hear your feedback, if you have any comments please email newsteam@warwickshire.gov.uk