Integral to this campaign was ensuring there were opportunities for young people with lived experience of youth violence to be involved at every stage of production. Early on, we attended multiple training sessions run by StreetDoctors and discussed individual experiences of the wider issues with 13-24 year olds. StreetDoctors also consulted with young people about the script and final edits of the film.
The cast was carefully selected from theatre schemes for young people with lived experience of youth violence. The film’s main character (Sam) was played by Finn Kebbe, who trained with inclusive theatre company Chickenshed, while Unique Spencer (Tina) trained at Generation Arts and recently appeared in Netflix’s hit show Top Boy. In addition Nadine-Rose Johnson, who plays the paramedic at the end of the film, had been trained by StreetDoctors and completed their Stepwise programme to co-deliver sessions throughout 2019.
The integrated campaign ran over three weeks, with a focus on Snapchat and a micro-influencer PR plan to get relevant people sharing the content. With a total media spend of just £440 the film accrued 1.7 million impressions and 450,000 video views across all channels. This far exceeded our initial target of 1 million impressions and 300,000 video views.
The video became the most shared and engaged with content ever on StreetDoctors’ social channels. On Facebook there were 103 shares and almost 3,000 engagements. On Twitter the film was retweeted by the grime artist Wiley and the Home Office. On Instagram there were over 100,000 views and 4,000 likes. And on Snapchat there was a huge total of 1.2 million impressions and 48,000 swipe ups to view extra content.
There are future plans to show the campaign on TV news channels alongside new research from StreetDoctors, though these plans have been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. However the campaign continues to give StreetDoctors a lifeline during national lockdown, as they are no longer able to run their face-to-face sessions and must find new ways to reach their audience. This content allows them to do just that.
