The research found there could be over 10,000 people in Leeds who were ‘problem gamblers’
In 2016 Leeds Beckett University, in partnership with Leeds City Council, undertook research on the issue of problem gambling in Leeds and its impact.
The research found there could be over 10,000 people in Leeds who were ‘problem gamblers’ and a further 30,000 people who could be at risk of harm from gambling.
This campaign needed to significantly raise the profile of the issue and encourage people to seek support from the Money Information Centre.
Client
Leeds City Council
Campaign objectives
- To increase awareness of gambling related harm.
- To reduce the stigma of problem gambling and encourage people to open up about gambling-related harm.
Engaging problem gamblers
The campaign needed to reflect the look and feel of gambling apps, games and casinos, to ensure it would be engaging to problem gamblers. We achieved this by incorporating similar typography and iconography styles to those used by these sites to form the Beat the Odds logo, which included bingo balls, fruit machines, playing cards and more.
We decided on the brand name ‘Beat the Odds’ as it also worked as a clever call to action, catching the eye of a problem gambler under the pretence that the information would help them win their bets.
Upon presenting our initial concepts for the campaign we took the designs out to testing with different members of our target audience, including: betting/bingo app users, bookies and families of people who gamble regularly.
We carried out focus groups, an online questionnaire, and on the street research, to test our concepts and gather feedback on design concepts, campaign messaging, and their preferred campaign media.
Based on these findings, we then refined the most popular campaign route, Beat the Odds, to ensure it was as engaging to our target audiences as possible.
As a result of the success of Beat the Odds, we created a second strand to the campaign to target problem gamblers during the 2018 World Cup.
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