Session 1 - Introduction To Campaigning And Looking At Campaign Ideas - 27/01/12

Introductions
We kicked our first session off with introductions to everybody.

Campaign Ideas
We all discussed some ideas on what we wanted our campaign to be about:
- Drugs (cannabis is the key thing)
- Gangs
- Knives

What Has Already Been Done?
We talked about the other groups and what 'Staying Safe' campaigns that are already being done:
- An anti-knife crime play
- A mobile website to help young people get around in London
- An anti-knife crime poster
- A anti-bullying short film
- A website that teaches boys how to talk to girls

Throwing Ideas Around
We came up with an idea which we discussed in more detail to see if it would work.
The idea was about Staying safe at a party and what the main influences are:
- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Gangs
- Knife crime

The idea of a party can cover all sorts of areas.

Looking At Examples Of Innovative Campaigns
We looked at some really great campaigns that have drawn people in in a really clever way. Everyone's favourite videos were the campaigns for 'Samsung' and  'VW'.


- It's good that it's interactive but people are lazy and they won't look at it so much.


- We liked that the Voltswagen Twitter zoom campaign offered an interactive experience in the form of a ticket hunt.
- They asked people to get on their phones and follow their coordinates to go and find tickets for a gig that they were holding.
- They give people an incentive to spread the word


- To let people know that the phone's indestructible
- Smart
- It has to go viral first - it's difficult but do-able

The key of a campaign is to find out how people tick!

Looking At The Point Of Our Ideas
We discussed some more ideas in a little more detail that everybody may want to do for the campaign.
Drugs:
- The consequences and effects
- To be safe high

Knife crime:
- To the perpetrator
- 'Don't carry knives'

Gangs:
- Joint enterprise
- Prevention of joining
- Younger people - 11-19 year olds - both genders - vulnerable

We discussed the idea of squatting on other people's Facebook pages:
- Donate us your Facebook page a a certain amount of time
- Pushing for change

Some Things For Us To Consider
- Advertise it
- Arrange a small event to draw people in
- An incentive to tell everyone
- Parties mean that there is more of an opportunity to take drugs and get involved with that (this is a main issue)

Group Activity:





Finish
Everybody was asked to put together a pitch of their ideas for the next session so that we can make some decisions on what our campaign will be about.