West Lothian Council – Alcohol Reduction Campaign
The abuse of alcohol remains a scourge in Scotland. The cost: millions of pounds, broken families, violence – even murder, town centres where people fear to tread at night and health problems that are wholly avoidable. Visionary West Lothian Council recruited Thinktastic to create a campaign to reduce alcohol consumption in three communities – each different in size and profile. Exciting local participation events, with children, teenagers, adults, traders and a host of professionals were used in the lead up to the launch events. The creative, using a range of media including posters, leaflets, handouts, postcards and active promotion within the neighbourhood, was inspired by the words and ideas of local people – we expect it to contribute to new behaviours around drinking among all ages.

View a video of one community launch >>

EIS National Campaign
Let’s retain education as Scotland’s most prized asset – music to Thinktastic’s ears and the message the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) wanted to get across to Scottish voters in an advertising campaign timed during the run-up to the recent general election. The message, which appeared in all major Scottish newspapers, was clear: “Before you vote think about the impact of your choice on education."

Fostering Success
In Edinburgh, we achieved a 37% increase in foster carers recruited within one year – this was allied to 600% increase in enquiries generated during the same period. Our starting point was to get together foster parents in a series of creative events. The objective was to hit on ways to change deep-seated feelings of resistance among the target groups. The key finding was that previous campaigns had focussed not on the positive of fostering but on the neediness of the children. There was also a sense of: “I can’t be a foster carer, I’m too old or I don’t have a big enough house.” The campaign debunked these myths.

In the process, we involved the stars of Emmerdale, Lorraine Kelly, Anna Ryder Richardson, STV’s Stephen Jardine and
children’s writer, Diane Hendry, in a series of exciting events and competitions. Bus sides and newspaper ads were used – other than that, our approach was to prepare a more affirming set of communications for the social work department, create a new brand ‘Looking after Edinburgh’s Children’ to create a sense of collective responsibility and use a series of PR activities involving school children and parents. The campaign won the IPR Scotland award for a community campaign in 2004.

East Lothian Council - Waste Aware
Increased rates of recycling in East Lothian from 15% to 35.4% of waste disposed. Research events with local people, yielded surprising feedback - resulting in a local brand, the use of humour and facts and neighbourhood specific material. We also tested and used a colourful brand and message ‘Let’s not Waste East Lothian’ which proved highly motivational and the campaign has consistently helped East Lothian Council to exceed the Government’s improvement targets, as well as their own more rigorous targets.