Police Service of Northern Ireland: Plastic policemen - IPA Effectiveness Awards Case Study 2007

Brief Description: In order to aid the recruitment of Police Community Support Officers and to improve the public's opinions about them, a communications programme was built around an advertiser-funded television programme 'Beat: Life on the Street'. The programme achieved the objective of improving the public's value of PCSOs, from an average of 28% pre-campaign, to 45% after the advertising and up to 62% after watching the programme. It became the UK's biggest ever ad-funded programme with each episode being watched by an average of 2.5 million people. The campaign also proved effective at encouraging candidates to apply to become PCSOs ;---(TAGS)--- Full Title: Plastic policemen? How ad-funded programming helped change perceptions of Police Community Support Officers ; Number: 2007/26 ; Brand Name: Police Service of Northern Ireland ; Client: The Home Office ; IPA_ProductCoding: Health & Social Services (Emergency services) ; Government Departments (Public service recruitment - armed forces, police etc.) ; Agency: Manning Gottlieb OMD ; Author: Andrew Mortimer, David Bratt, Wanda Gregorek ;