How Ardmore and the Department of Justice Introduced Northern Ireland's Stalking Act

In September of this year The Protection from Stalking Act 2022 was introduced in Northern Ireland, before this there was no specific legal definition of stalking.

Prior to the Act being introduced the Department of Justice asked Ardmore to deliver a digital campaign that would firstly and most importantly, inform the public about the introduction of the new stalking offence; and secondly, to raise awareness of the issue of stalking, how to recognise and report it, and where to find support.  

Tory Anderson was the media lead on this campaign, and was responsible for conducting research, audience analysis, strategy and media selection and planning. The initial ask from DOJ was for a digital media proposal with costs and planning and once DOJ had appointed an agency then creative would be developed. As a media manager this can make Tory's job more challenging, but it gave her space to be creative and strategic when selecting digital channels and the audiences these channels reach. 

As a media planner, Tory always wants to hand over something a bit different, something shiny and new that stands out and that the client hasn’t seen before but that also makes sense for the campaign. Tinder advertising was something Tory had been looking into for a while but hadn’t found a campaign that fit. This campaign did!

Q> How did the campaign come about?

Tory> In April of this year The Protection from Stalking Act 2022 was introduced in Northern Ireland, before this there was no specific offence of stalking. The Protection from Stalking Act 2022 creates a specific offence of stalking which will capture conduct or acts associated with stalking, and an alternative offence of threatening or abusive behaviour.  

Prior to the Act being introduced the Department of Justice asked Ardmore to deliver a digital campaign that would firstly and most importantly, inform the public about the introduction of the new stalking offence; and secondly, to raise awareness of the issue of stalking, how to recognise and report it, and where to find support.   

You can learn more about the stalking act here

Q> What was your role?

Tory> I was the media lead on this campaign, I was responsible for conducting research, audience analysis, strategy and media selection and planning. The initial ask from DOJ was for a digital media proposal with costs and planning and once DOJ had appointed an agency then creative would be developed. As a media manager this can make my job more challenging, but it gave me space to be creative and strategic when selecting digital channels and the audiences these channels reach.  

Q> How did you decide when and where to place this campaign?

Tory> In Northern Ireland harassment cases have soared by 1,000% in the last 19 years, yet no laws specifically tackling stalking have been in place. The Digital Media Strategy was built to build awareness around the issue of stalking and inform the public of the new stalking offence. Secondly, it uses trigger point media to teach people how to report stalking and, critically, where to find support. The media strategy was designed to deliver awareness, increase understanding and to safeguard those most at risk. The campaign was launched to coincide with the new offence towards the end of September and run to the end of March 2023. As I was restricted to digital channels only, I needed to fully understand the audiences the campaign was aiming to reach. 

Our key target audiences were, firstly, female victims of stalking. Statistics from the Crime Survey for England and Wales identified females aged 16-24 as the most at risk of being stalked, but we recognise is not restricted too and other age groups were considered.   

Secondly male victims of stalking.

Perpetrators/offenders to make them aware that their stalking behaviour is a crime and to raise awareness of what behaviours constitute stalking. Also, to inform perpetrators of the substantial penalties if convicted of stalking, which includes imprisonment of up to 10 years on indictment.

The general public to raise awareness of stalking behaviours and that stalking is now a specific criminal offence.

Finally hard to reach groups. 

Media consumption for reaching audiences was explored using Target Group index (TGI). I collated individual audience information on the above audiences where reliable and sizable data exists. Digital media channels were chosen that reach target audiences and meet the campaigns objectives: to inform the public of the new legislation and to raise awareness to the issue of stalking.

As a media planner, I always want to hand over something a bit different, something shiny and new that stands out and that the client maybe hasn’t seen before, but that also makes sense for the campaign. Tinder advertising was something I had been looking into for a while but hadn’t found a campaign that fit. It is a platform that is yet to fully penetrated by the advertising industry. In recent years it has seen growth in its advertising capabilities, but nothing that equates to the likes of Facebook or Instagram. Tinder has 75 million users, 78.1% of which are male, and 21.9% are women (Dating Zest, 2022). 

With Tinder users heavily male dominated, this platform would target male victims of stalking and perpetrators to raise awareness and educate. There have been more than 100 reported crimes including rapes, stalking and violence linked to the dating app Tinder. I had to be careful with this placement, we didn’t want to come across as accusatory, this was to educate and prevent stalking behaviour. I wished to educate the male audience, stalking is a pattern of behaviours which some males might not recognize as a crime, placement on this platform had the potential to act as ‘point of danger placement’ highlighting the new offence and raise awareness of what behaviours constitute stalking. The hours that users are most active is between 6-10pm (Nielsen), so this campaign is time banded to keep down costs and ensure the messaging is served when the user is most engaged. The creative felt very native in the space and appeared as typical Tinder ‘swipe’ profile. Users have the option to click through to the NI Direct website to learn more about the new legislation. 

With digital media plans, social media is a no brainer. Social Media is a key area in the digital strategy, especially when I looked at the research collected from TGI indicating the popularity of Facebook and Instagram with all audiences, and for those most likely to be a victim of stalking, TikTok and Snapchat are unsurpassed. The PSNI believe that the rise in cases in stalking is due to the digital space and the hold social media has on society. Where better to target potential offenders, and unbeknown victims of stalking, than the platforms that potentially enable these crimes? 

Online press and programmatic will run in bursts throughout the campaign. Neither target any specific groups but are to raise awareness with the all NI adult audience on the new Stalking legislation and educate on what constitutes stalking. I was careful to select Belfast Live as this is free of charge for users so as to not eliminate all NI audiences.

Google search will run throughout the duration of the campaign. There are three campaigns running, the first is victims, which will speak to our most at risk group of people – those searching for help and seeking report on how to report cases of stalking. Google Search adverts will be used to signpost audiences to the website for help and highlighting that victims are now able to report stalking as a crime to the police. There are also several helplines and websites they can turn to where they can seek advice. Second is an awareness campaign, this could be users who want to learn more about the legislation. Lastly are perpetrators/offenders, when a user searches something that allude to stalking behaviours or intent to research, they will be served the ad. This allows the messaging to get in front of potential offenders before any crime has been committed allowing them to recognise their behaviour as stalking and deter them from making any further action, again acting as point of danger messaging. I identified keywords suitable for the campaign to ensure we reach the correct user with relevant content which is closely monitored on a daily basis.  

Q> Did it have an impact?

Tory> The digital space is something that has heightened stalking behaviour as it has evolved over the last few years, to get in front of people in a space that could potentially assist in stalking made me even more passionate about making sure I made the correct media choices.  

This campaign is still running and will continue to run until the end of March 2023. From results so far, we are extremely pleased. The campaign has been live since the end of September, and we have achieved amazing results so far. Tinder has been turned live for the month of December to catch those returning home from studying or working elsewhere, so far we have seen a massive increase in engagement so it will be great to see the impact this burst has on the campaign at the end of the month. 

The campaign has garnered 3,882,177 impressions so far in Northern Ireland with a population of 1.9million. Social media equates for the majority of these, but our tactical channels such as Google search have shown the impact of the campaign, with users actively searching to find out more about the new legislation which as a media planner is really encouraging to see, knowing that our work is making a difference, educating the public and eradicating stalking behaviour.