Choose a Different Ending – The Metropolitan Police
This campaign was born out of the terrifying reality that a lot of young people feel that they have protection from carrying a knife. This is of course bonkers, so the Met started a campaign that showed the seriousness of certain choices involving knives. They did this in an ingenious way, through a serious of films that culminate in a denouement based on the choices of the viewer.
WHAT THEY DID
The film is exquisitely made from a first person perspective (the Peep Show way) and is interactive so that at the end of each short clip the user is presented with several choices that can be activated by live buttons embedded into the youtube video (annotation technology). Options like ‘take the knife’ or ‘leave the knife’ provide the cornerstone to the campaign. Each choice links to a different video which lives out the consequences of the choice. Ultimately the scenarios prove that by taking a knife you put yourself in danger. There are 21 different videos in total, leading to 10 variants of ending.
HOW THEY DID IT
The film was promoted through TV and radio on relevant stations such as MTV to encourage young people towards the videos. They also used viral trailers to drive traffic towards youtube.
Commander Mark Simmons, head of Operation Blunt 2 said:
‘The campaign reflects our key messages to young people that carrying a knife can have serious consequences, and that before they choose to do so, they need to stop and think about their actions.
Ultimately, the advert takes on a video game quality, but one which is grounded in sense rather than exhilaration which I think is a pretty smart approach. Getting your message across in a format regularly digested by the target audience.
In case you were wondering, the vital statistics on this one read like a 36-24-36 and are proudly displayed on their Cannes nomination page.
| • 4.6 out of 5 average user rating. • 2.1% click-through rate on viral video trailers, well above 0.2% industry benchmark for rich media banners. • Net number of views logged would have required a TV budget 600% the size of our spend. • Peer-to-peer debate about the videos and knife crime swelled. At peak, more than 80 comments a day were posted, with a total of over 3,000. • Total views to date, 2,652,012. • Highest total recall of any Metropolitan Police campaign, ever. 78% among our target. |
XX
Nice Cannes 