Live Fear Free – COVID Campaign

Freshwater was tasked with communicating the availability of 24/7 support for domestic abuse victims, despite the national COVID lockdown.

For five years, Freshwater worked on Welsh Government’s Live Fear Free (LFF) campaign to raise awareness of domestic abuse, driving contacts to the LFF helpline. Our biggest challenge was when we were tasked with communicating the availability of 24/7 support, despite the national COVID lockdown. This was particularly important as the pandemic increased the risk of domestic abuse and control due to being confined at home, yet contacts to the helpline had decreased sharply.

Within the confines of a two-week timeframe, we created the ‘Home Shouldn’t be a Place of Fear’ concept to tie in with the sentiments of a nation at that time, which ran through all campaign materials. Because we needed to reach as wide an audience as possible in a short period of time, we had to think outside the box in terms of our campaign strategy.

Our channel mix included TV, radio, digital and print advertising but we also wanted to consider OOH placements, particularly important for those at risk of abuse at home but more difficult as the usual channels weren’t appropriate due to lockdown. We looked at all the places that people were able to visit during lockdown and then devised a partnership marketing strategy that outlined how stakeholders could promote the LFF helpline to those who needed it in those locations. We created a partner toolkit, which included a number of downloadable resources such as posters, and circulated it to various organisations.

Using data from the helpline, and charting the types of contact received, we were able to monitor the effect of the campaign in real-time, identifying patterns and adjusting our strategy accordingly. With data immediately flagging up a significant increase in silent means of contact (57% higher than same time-period the previous year), we adapted our messaging and creatives accordingly, placing a greater emphasis on these contact methods. We secured support from:

• Community Pharmacy Wales: the distribution of campaign posters to 716 pharmacies in Wales
• B&Q: distribution of campaign posters to all Welsh stores (as well as two independent garden centres)
• Tesco: helpline details featured on all till receipts in Welsh stores for three months

As a result of the campaign, contacts returned to pre-lockdown levels.