We recently produced a promotional video for Leeds City Council’s Be Smoke Free Campaign, a service that’s provided by One You Leeds. Be Smoke Free offers free help and advice on how to quit smoking over a 12-week course.
The video was used across a range of channels, including Leeds City Council’s website, YouTube, GP practices newsletters, service promotion, bulletins, briefings, and on social media. Our target audience was any gender between the age of 25-55, with a focus on those from BME communities, people with mental illness’ and/or learning disabilities, and males in general.
We had discussed this project with Laura, Leeds City Councils health improvement specialist. Laura briefed us on what she wanted for the video, which was a video to decrease smoking rates in Leeds by increasing the uptake of the One You Leeds smoking service by introducing the programme through video. Prior to the pandemic, this service relied on health care referrals, however it is now dependant on self-referrals, causing a decrease in service users as the programme was not widely known to Leeds residents.
Knowing that Be Smoke Free relied on self-referrals meant that we were faced with the challenge of creating a narrative that encouraged people to join the service. As a result of this, we chose to push a family-orientated narrative throughout the video, as we wanted it to be emotive yet relatable. From there we were able to make a story board and see the project come to life. We were lucky enough to have access to individuals that were happy to be in the campaign video and who felt strongly about being smoke free. Kyle and Demonét curated the voice over script ensuring that the video had a call to action whilst keeping it formal but light-hearted.
Our videographer, Demonét, captured the importance of a smoke-free lifestyle whilst ensuring that the subject of addiction was tackled sensitively. We began the process by choosing the key locations throughout the video: Roundhay Park, Clarence Dock, and Elland Road. We also shot B-roll at Leeds Train Station, Kirkstall Abbey, and Sovereign Street.
The team at 21 Degrees Digital thoroughly enjoyed working with Leeds City Council and creating content for such an important cause. We hope you enjoy our video.