Ali Jeremy, director of communications, NSPCC; Stephen Nutt, senior campaigns officer, NSPCC Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from our past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do. http://www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Using qualitative research to
create powerful campaign
messages
Ali Jeremy – director of communications
Stephen Nutt - senior campaigns officer
16th July 2014

2. Background to the campaign
• 63% of the public said the recent media coverage had made them think
more about sexual abuse
• Sexual abuse consistently tops the list of public concerns relating to children
• We wanted to run a campaign responding to the increased concerns of
parents and carers

3. What we knew
• Parents and carers can
play an important role in
keeping their children safe
from sexual abuse by
talking to them.
• Parents have an important
role in facilitating
disclosures.

4. Selecting the target audience
• Initially wanted to target parents of 3-
18 year olds – way too broad
• Wanted to focus on age when having
the conversations - this would be
most effective, but also needed to be
realistic
• Target audience: parents of 5-11
year olds:
– Easier to segment as a group –
primary school
– Less difficult to criticise
– Opens the way for conversations with
younger children

5. Understanding our audience
We needed a better understanding of and insights into:
• Parents’ understanding, knowledge and concerns regarding talking to their
children about sexual abuse
• The barriers to talking about it
• What would motivate them to speak with their children about the topic?
• What sources and what type of help and advice do they seek or would
welcome
And further to explore:
• Parents’ reactions to the idea of receiving advice and information from the
NSPCC to help them have these difficult conversations with their
child/children

6. Methodology
• 12 x 90 minute private individual pre-
tasked in-depth interviews with parents of
primary school children 5-11
• All participants unaffected by the issue
• 8 mums, 4 dads
• Interviews took place in London, Cardiff,
Glasgow and Bangor (Co. Down)

7. Family dynamics

8. Conversations about difficult topics
Road safety Food allergies Death of a pet
Death of a relative Bullying Friendships and
relationships
“The birds and the bees” Using the internet Stranger danger
Unlike Sexual Abuse, all these topics:
• Are in the public domain:
Freely discussed amongst family, friends, fellow parents, at school
Acknowledged as relevant to children/necessary for children to know
• Have other ‘support materials’ readily accessible
• Can be simply explained/readily tailored to age/capability to understand
• Mostly enable parents to draw on personal experience

9. Stranger danger

10. Talking about keeping safe from sexual
abuse with your child

11. Go on…

12. The barriers to having the
conversations
• Not on my radar
– Not considered need
– Not relevant to me/my child
• Not on the public radar
– The issue of talking to children is never mentioned/discussed by
friends/other parents/ media
– Not aware of schools covering it
• I don’t want to
• My child is too young
• The implications
– Of kids then going on to talk about it to others/misunderstanding
– Of how you think about trust/others – changing my whole world view

13. Disregarding all the
“justifications”
I don’t know what to say
• Interestingly our pre-wave quantitative research would
have suggested parents have more knowledge of what
to say: 19% strongly agreed and 55% agreed with the
statement: “I know what to say to my child to keep them
safe from sexual abuse”
• Demonstrates the importance of using qualitative
research to delve deeper

14. Styles of communication
• We also tested a range of communication styles
and formats about sexual abuse with parents
• Heavy duty/serious communications reinforced
the idea that “this is not something for me”
• We continued to research with parents when
developing our guides

15. Key lessons
Lesson How we addressed this
The need to deliver a wake up call to
parents without using “shock tactics”
The wake up call centred around the
ease of having the conversations with
more subtle reminders of why it’s
important
The need for advice and support for
parents about what to say
Where the Underwear Rule came in…
The need to make it public so it’s no
longer seen as an unusual
conversation to have
Ran a mass media campaign to our
target audience
Making the issue scary would reinforce
existing barriers
The tone is light-heated and empathetic
throughout the campaign

16. The Underwear
Rule campaign

17. Supporting parents to have
conversations
The Underwear Rule:
Teaches children that their
private parts are private,
their body belongs to them,
and that they should always
tell an adult if they’re upset
or worried.

18. Not something new…

19. Key elements of the Underwear Rule

20. Talk PANTS

21. The campaign so far
• Two big media waves –summer 2013, January - March 2014
• UK wide radio, TV and digital advertising campaign
• TV and online “Private Parts” ad
• Radio ads:
• Digital advertising
• Partnership with Netmums and Bounty
• Dissemination of campaign via the media, social media, staff,
partners and stakeholder organisations

22. Some
highlights

23. Reaction
• Overwhelmingly positive reaction from parents, media, staff, professionals
and key stakeholders.
• Received support from external organisations including National Children’s
Bureau, Sex Education Forum, the Children’s Commissioners in each
nation, Parentzone, Family Lives, Young Minds, 4Children and several
LSCBs, police forces and politicians.
“As a mother myself, I think the Underwear Rule
campaign is a brilliant initiative – I think it’s a great idea
and I having already started talking to my son about
some of these issues such as good and bad secrets.
The materials are really visual and helpful in providing
easy simple ways to discuss such important topics.”
- Cheryl, a mother from Blackpool
Right: Mum Gillian with son Aidan

24. Parents’ feedback

25. Recognition
• 36% of all parents with children aged 5-11
recognise the campaign (rising to 45% of
mums)

26. Underwear Rule advice page
• Over 725,000
unique views
www.nspcc.org.uk/underwear

27. Advice for parents and carers
• Over 100,000 downloads of the online guides on nspcc.org.uk and
Netmums
• 250,000 hard copies for parents distributed via GP surgeries,
schools, partner organisations etc

28. Award winning

29. Impact

30. Impact
Of those parents who saw the campaign the proportion who have ever
spoken to their child about keeping safe from sexual abuse rose from 46%
pre-campaign to 63% post campaign (Mar ‘14).
This represents around 400,000 additional parents having
conversations with their children.

31. Challenges
• 46% of parents overall (5-11 yr olds) have still not spoken to their
children.
• Significant difference between parents’ confidence and the numbers
actually speaking to their children.
• Top reasons for not speaking to their children:
– Child is too young
– Need hadn’t occurred to them.
• Further scope to increase parents’ knowledge and confidence – only
21% of parents strongly agree that they know what to say to keep
their children safe. 23% feel very confident about speaking to their
child.

32. What next?
• Ongoing campaign for the NSPCC
• More work to support parents of younger
children
• New resources for harder to reach groups:
– Parents/children with a learning disability (now
available)
– Parents of children with ASD
– Deaf children
– New languages – Russian, Polish, Latvian,
Lithuanian
• Resources for schools
• Local campaigns

33. A reminder why this is so important
• After seeing the
NSPCC's Underwear
Rule campaign,
Rachel* spoke to her
daughter Hannah*
about keeping safe
from abuse.
• She was shocked to
discover that her 3-
year-old had been
abused by a family
friend, Ron Wood.
Ron was jailed for 8
years in February
2014.
"I know a lot of parents might be worried about having
the conversation with their children but it's so
important that you do - I don't want this to happen to
anyone else.
"You don't think that sexual abuse will ever affect your
family but it could do so you need to talk to your
children about it to protect them.
"There are so many opportunities when you can bring
it up, such as when you are washing them or dressing
them.
"You don't have to make it into a big thing; you can
talk to them as though it's an everyday conversation.”
Rachel*

34. Questions?

35. Discussion
• What did you think about the campaign and
how we used qualitative research – any
observations or anything you might have done
differently?
• What audience insight and research methods
do you use to refine your communications?
• How can you make the best of evidence at
your disposal when you have a small budget?

36. Thank you!
alison.jeremy@nspcc.org.uk
@alijeremy
stephen.nutt@nspcc.org.uk
@NuttSteve

37. Visit the CharityComms website to view
slides from our past events, see what
events we have coming up and to
check out what else we do.
www.charitycomms.org.uk