Anna Hutton
A marketing agency has launched a powerful new ‘Derby Changemakers’ project aimed at engaging with organisations across Derbyshire to support important campaigns, the first being the prevention of violence against women and girls in the county.
MacMartin, an award-winning agency specialising in behaviour change campaigns, launched the hard-hitting project at a packed Marketing Derby bondholder event, where business representatives heard some shocking statistics revealing the prevalence of sexual abuse in the county.
With the timing of the event specially planned so that parents doing the school run could attend – given the subject matter – Marketing Derby guests also watched a powerful video on the topic created by Derby Youth Alliance.
Alongside Anna Hutton, director of communications and behaviour change at MacMartin, businesses heard from SV2 – Derbyshire’s leading charity that supports victims of sexual abuse – and well-known charity Safe & Sound which supports young people and families across the county whose lives are affected by child exploitation.
MacMartin, which works to incite positive changes in society, asked for pledges of support from businesses to support the campaign which aims to highlight the issue of violence against woman and girls and help prevent it.
Anna said MacMartin had been blown away by the number of businesses which have already pledged support for its Derby Changemakers project.
She said: “At MacMartin we are committed to using our marketing skills to create behaviour change campaigns which aim to have a positive effect on the societies where we work.
“We are very proud to be fronting the Derby Changemakers project, a name which was voted on by representatives attending the launch event. Violence against women and girls has got to stop and we are going to do all in our power to create a campaign that changes behaviour. We will be using the support pledged by businesses to conduct research, create campaign assets, help establish significant reach, and measure the changes in attitudes and behaviours.”
MacMartin has recently conducted a highly impactful behaviour change campaign in Staffordshire, where they were commissioned by The Staffordshire Police, Fire and Fire Commissioner to create a campaign aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour around county hotspots including areas of Burton, Stafford Town and Newcastle under Lyme.
The campaign used a whole range of marketing materials including posters, Snapchat ads, and large shopping centre screens with its ‘Proud’ campaign, with a significant reduction anti-social behaviour reported.
Now MacMartin wants to achieve similar positive results with its Derby Changemakers project, and has pledged £5,000 to kickstart this campaign.
Rachel Morris, CEO of SV2, which supports victims of sexual abuse regardless of sex, age, time of abuse or whether or not crimes have been reported to police, shared a harrowing story from a real-life victim of long-running sexual abuse, and the severe impact on her life.
She said: “Sexual violence simply shouldn’t exist and no one should deal with it alone. The stark reality is however that the incidence of sexual abuse rises year on year and, in Derbyshire, SV2 supported 955 children, young people and adults between March 2022 and March 2023 which is a significant increase compared with the previous year.
“Whilst sexual abuse exists, we’ll be here to support and empower the victims, inform the public and protect future generations. A major part of our work is to therefore to raise awareness in our local communities about sexual abuse so anything that can be done to increase the volume of conversations and hopefully lead to changes in behaviour is welcome.”
Tracy Harrison, CEO of Safe & Sound, shared some hard-hitting statistics with representatives in the room, including the fact that one in five women in Derbyshire had been victims of sexual assault or attempted assault, and that one in four girls in school had experienced unwanted touching.
MacMartin are calling all business owners and representatives in Derbyshire to join the Derby Changemakers project. Anyone who would like to join Derby Changemakers or find out more about MacMartin’s campaign at [email protected] or call 01283 703626.
