Alcohol Know your Limits

The Idea

The UK Government has just launched a campaign called Know Your Limits, warning against the dangers of binge drinking. It’s a multi-channel campaign, TV, radio, press, online plus videos like this one sitting on YouTube, developed by VCCP digital and shot by Independent’s director Mathew Jerrett.

The tag line is ‘You wouldn’t start a night like this, so why end it that way?’, as the ads look at how a night on he drink can end, calling attention to the extremes of the behaviour.

According to the press release, here’s an outdoor element:

The new adverts were unveiled alongside an innovative window display on Long Acre in central London, which re-enacts scenes from the television campaign. The display will run for two weeks and will be complemented by a viral video downloadable via a Bluetooth connection at the site. A team of street marketers will be on hand to engage the target audience face-to-face to reinforce the campaign messages. There are plans to recreate the shop window display in town centres up and down the country.

The campaign is targeted at 18-24 year olds and is “designed to spark conversations and debate about binge drinking across the internet.” It’s part of a larger campaign, which includes information about the units of alcohol in various drinks, as the Uk population apparently gets all confused

What I think about it

This age group can be extremely difficult to reach with conventional advertising, so the focus on broadcast mechanisms may not be the best, even if they are being targeted at programmes with a high target audience. However, by creating content that is edgy, they’re hoping that the debate will move into the online networks, but there seems to be a lack of tools for someone to use the information in those areas.

They’re really pushing the online video, Fashion Show Gone Wrong, as a quick search shows it on many, many video sites. I liked the video itself, but hopefully this comment is not completely typical of the reaction:

but compltly misses the point and wont effect me in any way shape or form. shit way to spend the goverments millions in my opinion

Overall, there’s a lot of stuff going on that should connect with people, but I’m not sure the stuff aimed at the younger section of the market will take too much notice. I’d be interested in seeing the results.

The Pitch

The email was directly from Chris at Rubber Republic, someone I normally onlu bump into on some marketing email lists. He’s been busy promoting the campaign amongst the ad blogs, ie this post from Rachel and Deb. It contains lots of useful information and offers to answer anything else I need. Overall, pretty good.

Update: I asked what the music was following the question in the comments. It’s ‘Wow’ by Siriusmo remixed by Mode Selektor