Finalist for Integrated Social Media Campaign of the Year: Spot The Signs. Stop The Crime. #EndExploitation
Naturally Social’s campaign: Spot The Signs. Stop The Crime. #EndExploitation, was one of the finalists in the Integrated Social Media Campaign of the Year category at the Social Media Marketing Awards 2025.
What was the strategy behind the campaign, what challenges were faced, what lies ahead for future campaigns? We spoke with the team to learn more:
There are around 100,000 young people aged 13–24 across Wiltshire and Swindon – and local police have reported that “dozens of young people are being supported to prevent exploitation, including those linked to county lines.”
Our strategy was simple: meet them where they’re at online – on the platforms they and their friends and peers use every day. Raising awareness among those not at risk reduces stigma, starts conversations, and helps young people look out for one another.
With Snapchat reaching 90% of 13-24 year-olds and TikTok engaging 76% of 15-24 year-olds in the UK, these became our priority channels. (statista.com)
To build trust and create relatability, we made a bold creative choice: no police branding on any imagery. We chose not to run the ads through a Wiltshire Police channel, but created a username ‘Spot The Signs’ via each ads dashboard. This decision would hopefully increase watch time and engagement.
The Challenge
Our biggest challenge was budget. With just £3,000 to spend and a three-week lead time, we had to deliver a campaign that looked and felt high-quality, despite tight constraints.
We were initially worried about suggesting AI, for fear the client may have taken internal decisions not to use it as an organisation. We spent a lot of time trying to find an exact match for their vision by using stock images, but the client kept feeding back that they were missing the mark.
To reduce time delays, we asked for a call with the team and had prepared some example AI images. We spent time reassuring them about our paid tools, policies, and creative process. Once they saw early concepts, they were on board – impressed by the results and speed.
We also faced advertising restrictions. The client wanted to set click-throughs as a success measurement – driving traffic to their landing page that had further information on the campaign. But because Snapchat and TikTok don’t allow click-throughs for under-18s (and we were targeting young people 13+), we were restricted on doing this. After demonstrating this to the client, we adjusted KPIs to focus on reach and awareness, rather than link clicks.
We had also wanted to push creativity on Snapchat using interactive filters and gamified ads, for example quizzes and selection cards, to increase engagement time, but the client felt there wasn’t enough to trial its effectiveness and decided to save this idea for future campaigns.
The Strategy
We used AI creatively and responsibly to deliver a powerful, targeted campaign.
Using tools like Jasper AI, ChatGPT, VEED, and Ideogram, we developed visuals, messaging, and ad targeting – halving our typical production time, doubling output, and eliminating the need for costly photoshoots and editing equipment.
Copywriting: We created campaign copy for ads using Jasper.AI.
Imagery: Using Ideogram and its detailed and iterated prompts, we created and refined four initial visual concepts over three rounds of feedback before sign-off.
Design: We created 19 stills representing the five ‘signs’: becoming isolated, being secretive with phones, carrying knifes, buying expensive things suddenly, and experimenting with drugs.
Mood and tone: The client wanted all imagery to “feel sinister” – something that proved difficult to find even with the best stock imagery providers. After producing the imagery in Ideogram to demonstrate the signs, we used the AI tools within Canva to alter the ‘mood’ of each.
Representation: Across 47 final images, we ensured diversity of race, gender, and age so every young person could see themselves in the campaign.
Video: Using Canva and VEED, we produced two vertical videos for youth audiences and reworked one existing video into a parent-focused version.
Channels and Reach
We split the ad spend evenly between TikTok and Snapchat.
TikTok Ads:
£625 spend.
580,963 reach.
193,486 impressions.
444 click-throughs (18+ yr olds, male and female in Wiltshire and Swindon).
Snapchat Ads:
£625 spend.
267,418 reach.
2,727,285 impressions.
Additional impact:
Campaign imagery featured in print materials and on billboards.
Regional recognition from stakeholders, with requests to buy and reuse materials.
Positive client feedback, including this testimonial from Amy Pantall, Campaign Manager:
“It was a real pleasure working with Naturally Social. They dedicated their time and effort to creating a hard-hitting campaign that really spoke to our target audience…always readily available to answer any questions we had & talk through our concepts, managing our live ad campaign from start to finish and provide us valuable insights on performance.”
What We’re Proud Of
We’re proud of the internal and external response. The entire Wiltshire Police force loved the creative – so much so that they shared it with regional colleagues and stakeholders, several of whom asked to adopt the assets for their own areas.
What We Learned
Naturally Social team
We learnt that although using AI can support the clients goals, and allow us to ‘handle’ the timeframes, clear briefing processes and boundaries are still needed. Setting limits on rounds of amends, identifying single points of contact, and agreeing on objectives upfront are key to keeping projects on track.
We’re super excited for the future of social media and how integrating AI can help us scale messages that matter – giving more opportunity to causes that matter and providing them the creative power usually available to bigger budgets.
