LENS: DIAGEO AND COLLINGWOOD LEARNING
Spirit and beer producer, Diageo, has worked with education management provider, Collingwood Learning, and creative agency, We Are Tilt, to create an interactive programme and emotive video campaign aiming to educate young people about the risks of underage drinking.
Diageo is one of the world’s largest producers of spirits and beers, with over 200 brands operating in more than 180 countries. This campaign highlights a specific social problem relating to the industry in which Diageo operates. It seeks to provide a solution to global underage drinking, by delivering an interactive experience helping young people make decisions, interact with characters and learn about the consequences of their choices in an engaging way.
The video campaign is part the wider global initiative, Smashed, which has been running for over 15 years and aims to drive behavioural and attitudinal change among young people worldwide. Collingwood Learning delivers social responsibility programmes using educational theatre, and the Smashed campaign aims to reach five million young people by 2025.
“Tilt worked sensitively with our creative and educational material to adapt it to an e-learning model bringing fresh ideas and inspiration to the programme. The result is an emotionally engaging, top quality learning experience that is already generating fantastic feedback from teachers and students,” says Chris Simes, managing director at Collinwood Learning.
The content was filmed on a handheld camera to create a realistic and immersive video. One of the biggest challenges for the team at We Are Tilt was portraying drunken characters in a way that would resonate but not glamorise underage drinking. The team experimented with a range of methods including camera rigs and kaleidoscope balls in front of the lens.
The video relies on storytelling to engage with young audiences and reflect the life of young people as the target demographic. Each of the three videos tells the story of a single named character, which works to humanise the message. The content focuses on decision making as the solution to underage drinking rather than criticising life choices, as this is more likely to empower oppose to alienate young people.
By supporting the initiative, Diageo highlights its awareness of the challenges facing the alcohol industry and seeks to provide a solution while also delivering on its social responsibility as a business. The film was edited and condensed to create interactive social media content to be shared across localised markets worldwide.
