Scottish Government/Safer Scotland - Child Sexual Exploitation Campaign 2016 (csethesigns.scot)

While the full scale and scope of CSE in Scotland was unknown, experts believed that patterns were unlikely to differ substantially from England and therefore UK wide statistics were helpful in putting the scale of CSE into some context prior to the campaign:

1 in 9 young adults had experienced sexual abuse during childhood

35% of all recorded sexual crimes in England and Wales in 2012/13 (53,540 overall) were child sexual exploitation of under 16s.

The campaign’s lead message was to highlight to parents that CSE affects more children in more ways than they realise, in order to motivate them to find out more and be aware of the risks. Three potential creative routes were developed and tested, and the ‘Bunny’ was shown to have most potential to deliver on the campaign objectives. This route had a strong impact and was memorable and engaging. It felt relevant and importantly it provoked emotional reactions amongst the target audience and it was felt that this would prompt conversations at home. 

The final route included a TV advert, outdoor ads (telephone kiosks) and digital activity.

The TV advert, which carried the main weight of the campaign spend, can be viewed here.

Outdoor media (below), featured two ‘boy’ executions and one ‘girl’ execution to address the fact that CSE is incorrectly seen as only affecting girls, and to counterbalance the TV ad which described a girl being groomed.

With 76 pieces of coverage in total, the campaign’s key messages featured widely

across the media coverage

• 88% carried the message that CSE is happening to boys and girls across Scotland
• 84% mentioned that CSE takes many forms and can happen on and offline
• 62% mentioned that CSE can happen on a 1-to-1 basis as well as in an organised group
• 62% of coverage included a ministerial quote
• 57% mentioned that help and advice is available at csethesigns.scot

The campaign met its main aims of increasing awareness as well as increasing understanding and knowledge of CSE among the target audience. The creative made a strong impact, cutting through more general ‘noise’ around children and abuse. The campaign achieved good recognition, and while TV drove this, it was supported well by Facebook. The various strands of PR helped generate ample media interest and coverage. Strong support from stakeholders and partners meant that the stakeholder toolkit to deliver communications to young people themselves was well utilised.

“Parents and carers can play an important role in helping to keep young people in Scotland safe by making sure they are familiar with the signs of abuse that could indicate a child is at risk of abuse or already being affected."