The Situation
In 2018 Team Soapbox was hired by the King County Department of Public Health’s Lock It Up program to create a public campaign to motivate gun owners to change behaviors and use safe storage devices.
The Approach
King County wanted messaging to speak from an authentic gun owner perspective and knew that gun owners were wary of the government. Team Soapbox reviewed data and then engaged gun owners and retailers, starting with a series of “expert interviews” with gun retailers, safety instructors, veterans, and police officers to better understand the landscape and to inform focus group recruitment. We then set up a series of focus groups held at shooting ranges, gun stores, and law enforcement agencies across the county.
Based on what we learned, we designed a campaign that emphasized what gun owners articulated about their motivations to use safe storage devices: the fear that their guns would be stolen (and, for gun-owning mothers, the fear that members of their family would access their firearms inappropriately).
Using this research, we developed a brand identity and logo, messaging, and web content for the Lock It Up campaign and a photo shoot to create culturally relevant images that focused on positive behavior rather than scare tactics. The campaign included materials for law enforcement, media outreach, and social media. We developed audience specific radio ads that played on conservative talk radio, hunting programs, and sports radio. To reach gun owners where they already are, we worked with local sports retailers and gun shops to carry Lock It Up materials, including posters in gun stores and shooting ranges across the county and in permit licensing offices, and provided branded give-away ear plugs at shooting ranges and retailers with Lock It Up messaging.
