ProtectUK enabled vigilance messages to be cascaded locally and nationally to businesses, staff and members of the public. ProtectUK members also played an instrumental part in supporting policing to keep both events safe.
Both campaigns were underpinned by audience insights aimed at the importance of looking out for each other, trusting your instincts and reporting anything that didn’t feel right.
ProtectUK hosted an English and Welsh toolkit for the Coronation, which received almost 10,000 returning visitors to the page. Partners including Network Rail, the Big Lunch, Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Security Industry Authority (SIA) donated space on their digital screens, websites and newsletters to support the campaign.
During the lead up to and throughout the Coronation weekend, there were more than 100 calls to the anti-terrorism hotline and 80 online reports. Over 10% of these resulted in public intelligence to the police.
Working closely with Counter Terrorism Policing North West (CTPNW), the Eurovision campaign focused activity on the 10 BBC fan zones located around the country which were showing the Eurovision final. Targeted, paid social media adverts ran from Thursday 11 May – Saturday 13 May and focused on postcodes within a mile radius of the venues. The adverts reached almost 400,000 people and resulted in 843 clicks to gov.uk/ACT.
Support was secured from several external partners, including the BBC, regional police forces, British Transport Police (BTP), resilience forums, Network Rail, Manchester Airport, Liverpool One shopping centre and bars in Liverpool and the SIA. A toolkit was hosted on ProtectUK which contained a mix of static and animated assets for businesses to download and visuals were also translated into Welsh. The toolkit was shared by more than 230 unique authors with more than 149 posts online using the toolkit messaging.
For the first time, digivans were used to highlight vigilance messaging to Eurovision fans and were positioned close to each of the fan zones. While the assets in locations directed people to report to staff or police, social media activity asked people to report to Counter Terrorism Policing via the Anti-Terrorism Hotline and online. There were 95 online reports and 183 calls from 8 May – 14 May.
Neither of these campaigns could have been possible without the help and support of ProtectUK members and partners. The ProtectUK Team and Counter Terrorism Policing would like to thank all those involved in these two major events.
For further information on future campaigns, please email the team on NCTPHQMailbox.Campaigns@met.police.uk
