Advertising is a mass media tool that enables a larger audience to hear and remember the campaign’s key message.
One of the strongest suits of advertising is its aspect of storytelling, an especially important element for awareness-raising campaigns. Storytelling enables people to remember a message for a longer period and to truly understand it. The trafficking in human beings is about the protection of human rights, so people need to get emotionally involved in the topic through a well-crafted content communicated through effective visual tools.
One of the key objectives for a campaign is to be noticed amongst many others, especially for awareness-raising campaigns that often have limited budgets or lack of general public interest.
Through a story that is communicated in a simple, unexpected, credible, and emotional way, yet in a personalized manner relatable to the issue of trafficking in human beings, it is possible to gain recognition and also an emotional response of the audience that has not been familiar with the topic or overlooked current challenges in society. Advertising spreads the messages fastest to a large number of people, in the language and story context that is easily comprehended.
However, it is important not only to create an awareness raising campaign, that will portray issue in over-the-top metaphoric images (chains, slavery etc.) and leave it at that. It is imperative to pair up awareness objectives with particular call-to-action messages that audience needs to take after seeing campaign’s touch points. For example, call the hotline number or any other platform to report THB. It is crucial for every campaign and message to lead to a particular action that will accomplish objectives and overall help THB victims by recognizing problem and then reporting it.
Besides TV spots, mostly used storytelling format, other traditional advertising channels are also crucial for the maximum results of the campaign, such as billboards, print, radio, brochures, leaflets, etc.
