Most of the staff at Concept Engineering, like most individuals in America, have been touched ultimately by medication or suicide. It makes the work of the Santa Barbara communications agency all of the extra significant and all of the more practical.
“We actually do care,” mentioned CEO Simon Dixon, rolling up his sleeve to indicate the “STAY” tattoo on his forearm, the identify of the corporate’s new suicide prevention marketing campaign. “If we had been on this for the cash, we’d be promoting automobiles and sweet bars.”
Dixon and his staff produce what they name Turnkey Campaigns ― ready-to-launch public training packages that handle among the deadliest points affecting communities throughout the U.S., together with the scourge of fentanyl. Right here in Santa Barbara County, the variety of fentanyl-related deaths elevated by almost 300 p.c over the past two years.
The all-inclusive packages ― TV and radio spots, posters and flyers, social media messaging, web sites with native sources, and so forth ― are licensed by regional governments and well being organizations that lack the in-house staffing and sources to conduct significant outreach on their very own, particularly when time is of the essence.
“In public well being campaigns, delays equals our bodies,” Dixon defined.
As of final week, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties have all subscribed to Concept Engineering’s Fentanyl Is Ceaselessly marketing campaign, which is being delivered in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Farsi, and different languages. The corporate has purchasers all through the nation, from Georgia to Florida and throughout California, and so they’re open to negotiating their charges with smaller communities.
“On the finish of the day, we simply need these things on the market,” Dixon mentioned.
The campaigns, emphasised Dixon ― a deep-thinking and extensively revered guru of public communication ― are closely researched and evidence-based. Advisory teams of consultants assist create content material that’s genuine and speaks to the person human expertise behind these usually faceless points.
“That you must strategy folks in a method the place they’re truly getting the data they want,” Dixon mentioned. “Don’t attempt to persuade them. As an alternative, give them truths they’re on the lookout for.”
With respect to the STAY marketing campaign, former NFL quarterback and suicide try survivor Erik Kramer helped create the emotional arc of its messaging. “Within the ultimate weeks, I used to be solely in search of my very own counsel, and I solely had one resolution to my issues,” he mentioned in a press release.
“After I take into consideration suicide, I discover myself splitting the phrase ‘hopeless’ into its two elements, ‘hope-less,’” mentioned Dixon. “When you will have misplaced all hope, you lose sight of the long run. There is no such thing as a solar arising over the horizon.” The STAY marketing campaign, he defined, asks folks to do exactly that, to remain, and to present themselves the time, with assist, to search out hope and a purpose to be alive.
“The purpose is to make folks pause for an additional second to allow them to make the very best resolution,” Dixon continued. Particularly amongst teenagers. “Younger adults are reflexively against authority figures,” he mentioned. “We wish to invite them to have energy over their very own lives.” The initiative additionally targets high-risk teams, together with LGBTQ+ people, veterans, first responders, and the aged.
All of STAY’s parts, defined Jeanne Spencer, Concept Engineering’s chief artistic officer and Dixon’s longtime collaborator, hyperlink folks to the nationwide Suicide & Disaster Lifeline, 988. As effectively, QR codes, clickable digital advertisements, and net addresses join folks to native sources. “Lives are being misplaced and households are being destroyed,” Spencer mentioned. “These are instruments that may make an actual distinction in communities.”
For extra data, go to ideaengineering.com.
