Respect Richmond

As the Senior Graphic Designer at Madison+Main, I played a key role in the Respect Richmond campaign, an initiative by the Office of the Attorney General aimed at reducing gang and gun violence in Richmond, Virginia. My role focused on creating a bold and comprehensive strategy to effectively engage at-risk youth.

I designed eye-catching billboards, compelling video spots, and out-of-home marketing initiatives to maximize the campaign’s visibility in high-traffic areas. I also helped develop targeted digital ads that drove users to a dedicated website, which provided vital resources and support for at-risk youth and their families.

The Challenge

The goal and the objective of the Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative was to decrease gang-related homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies in Richmond, Virginia. They wanted to launch a mutli-platform outreach campaign that would work in unison with their street-level law enforcement activities.

The Approach

The campaign needed to communicate a deterrent message to would-be criminals, with the simultaneous promotion of community resources. A portion of the campaign also needed to build on community responsibility and utilizing community members as force multipliers. Finally, we wanted to address a major issue: once a shooting happens, there is typically a retaliatory event within about two weeks. Geographically, the campaign was hyper-focused on three neighborhoods within the Richmond city limits. However, within those three neighborhoods, we identified those three different “audiences” that needed to be reached with different messaging:

Direct messaging to reach the gang members
Community messaging to reach our community members
Anti-reactionary “audience” which was a segment of the direct and community audiences with specific anti-retaliatory messaging that was deployed after a qualifying incident

Despite having a very small geographic target market and even more segmented psychographic and behavioral audiences, we developed a relatable, surround sound campaign called Respect Richmond. We utilized billboards, in-store marketing at gas stations and convenience stores in the relevant neighborhoods, television, radio, digital, and social ads and even appeared on internet-connected devices such as Xbox consoles and Smart TVs. If an audience member was in our targeted neighborhoods, they weren’t able to get away from our messaging.

The Result

The Respect Richmond Campaign was an overwhelming success. During a summer launch of the campaign in 2018, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, violent crime decreased in the targeted neighborhoods of Creighton Court, Fairfield Court, Gilpin Court, and Whitcomb Court. Collectively, these neighborhoods saw a:

50 percent decrease in homicides
41 percent decrease in robbery with a firearm
100 percent decrease in robbery victims shot
34 percent decrease in aggravated assault with a firearm
57 percent decrease in aggravated assault victims shot
30 percent decrease in total violent crimes

In addition, Creighton Court saw a 100 percent decrease in homicides and a 55 percent decrease in total violent crimes. Fairfield Court saw zero homicides during the campaign and had an 80 percent decrease in aggravated assault and a 50 percent decrease in total violent crimes. Gilpin Court had a 100 percent decrease in homicides and robbery with a firearm as well as a 75 percent decrease in aggravated assault victims who had been shot. Finally, Whitcomb Court saw a 100 percent decrease in robbery victims who were shot.

SKILLS NEEDED

VIDEO PRODUCTION

STORYBOARDING

ART DIRECTION

DIGITAL DESIGN