National Trading Standards Scams Team has created two initiatives in the fight against scams entitled Friends Against Scams and Scam Marshals. As a whole, the team's aim is to help raise awareness of scams so that people know what to look out for to avoid becoming victims. A Scam Marshal is any resident in the UK who has been targeted by a scam and now wants to fight back and take a stand against scams.
To aid the team reach the milestone of 1000 Scam Marshals
We looked at the requirements and recommended a Facebook ad campaign as the best way to utilise the budget to hit the target. We also created a short video (scroll down to view) using royalty free stock video clips, a script we wrote, coupled with the narration from our client, Adam (done on an iPhone in a store cupboard)! Amazing what can be achieved with a little creativity.
The campaign consisted of targeted ad groups being created based on age, gender and interests. Wording and numerous graphics were tested and the results carefully monitored. Three phases of testing were carried out, each time with refinement until we then pushed the lions share of the budget onto the top performing ads to the most responsive audience.
We hit the target a week early! A buzz was created, not only with the public but internally in the Friends Against Scams office where a live counter was projected on the wall so the whole team could enjoy the final countdown!
The target number of registered Scam Marshals was exceeded and has continued to grow since. The team have continued with regular social media posts that have resonated with the audience and helped build an engaged community. Since working on this project, we have collaborated on numerous others since.
"We used Tom to create a social media campaign for our national project at the National Trading Standards Scams Team. He quickly created a suite of images with direct messaging along with a great professional video. He performed the appropriate testing in conjunction with our new website going live in order to make the campaign more efficient in line with our budget. The results were fantastic and all performance indicators were hit by the end of the project, this was down to Tom's great work. He kept the team informed of the progress throughout the campaign, we will continue to use him for our social media work"
Adam Carter
Senior Project Officer - National Trading Standards Scams Team