National Award for Lancashire Alcohol Campaign

Lancashire Drug and Alcohol Action Team (LDAAT) have collected a national award for their ‘Make Your Night Last Longer’ campaign.  The campaign successfully helped to encourage young people in Lancashire, particularly university students, to drink more sensibly.

The ‘Make Your Night Last Longer’ campaign collected two awards at the prestigious Best of Health Awards 2010 ceremony which were held in London last week. 

The campaign was developed with students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).  After speaking to students LDAAT found that young people were not fully aware of the possible consequences of drinking too much alcohol.  Working with the creative agency Grisdale, Lesniak and Swann, LDAAT were keen to inform young people of the dangers of drinking too much alcohol but also how they could drink more sensibly and ‘make their night last longer’

The key to the campaign was to attract the attention of the students with a message that they could relate to and be in a place that they might go.  A panel of UCLan students picked the final designs and they also helped to identify pubs and clubs, bus routes, bus shelters and billboards.  The designs had an element of humour which proved very popular with students.

Charlotte Gleave LDAAT Communications Manager “I am really proud of the campaign, I feel privileged to be working in a role that effectively uses campaigns to successfully make a difference.   It was so rewarding to see young people talking about the campaign and ultimately drinking much more sensibly as a result.”

The Best of Health Awards are held annually and run by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.  The awards officially recognise the effectiveness and creativity of campaigns targeting health issues.  Charlotte collected the award on behalf of the team “It is great to have formal recognition of what was truly a great campaign”.

LDAAT are working closely with other organisations in the partnership to build on the success of this campaign and to continue to work to their mission of reducing substance misuse in Lancashire.