Manchester City Council is the local authority for the city of Manchester, responsible for delivering essential public services, community safety initiatives and place-based improvement across the city. Working closely with partner organisations, the Council leads programmes designed to make Manchester a safer, more inclusive place for everyone.
Their core values are people, pride and place, making Manchester a place where people choose to live, and where companies want to invest.
Manchester City Council asked us to support the relaunch of Operation Safer Streets with a refreshed campaign identity that could work across print and digital touch points in the night-time economy. The core objectives were to:
The campaign needed to work in real-world environments – bars, clubs, streets and venues – and be recognisable, accessible and easy to deploy at scale.
Violence against women and girls was labelled a national emergency in England and Wales in 2024, yet incidents remain widely underreported. The insight that shaped the campaign was clear: fear-based safety messaging often reinforces anxiety rather than empowering action.
We learned that women were more likely to engage with reporting if the message felt supportive, visible and judgement-free. That led us to a strategy focused on reassurance over alarm, and confidence over caution.
At the heart of the creative was a confident, neutral female character walking home from a night out. We paired this with on-location photography around Manchester to ground the campaign in real places and familiar streets. The tone was calm, composed and relatable which was designed to signal safety, not threat. We used language that removed judgement and encouraged people to trust their instincts without fear or shame.
With the aim of this campaign being to encourage reporting, at the center of our work was to give women and girls the reassurance that support is here. As crimes of this nature are often unreported, it was crucial to build the confidence to report anything that doesn’t feel right and reassure people that support is available.
The campaign consisted of posters, social media ads, OOH ads as well as a pull up banner used at the launch event.
The campaign materials were widely adopted across Manchester venues and businesses, increasing the visibility of Operation Safer Streets on Friday and Saturday nights. The campaign identity supported the launch of the initiative and helped to reassure women and girls enjoying the city’s nightlife, while also raising awareness of how and where to report incidents or concerns. Overall, the campaign strengthened confidence, made safety messaging more prominent and accessible, and helped Manchester City Council and partners communicate clearly that support is available.
The campaign has been described as popular, recognisable and well matched to its audience, with strong uptake across venues and partner organisations. It supported the relaunch of Operation Safer Streets and helped build confidence among night-time visitors.
“We worked with Carbon Creative over the summer who designed a new campaign for Operation Safer Streets, which is the police and partnership response to violence against women and girls in the city of Manchester on Friday and Saturday nights. The operation was being relaunched and it was recognised that a new look and campaign to promote the work of this operation in venues and businesses across the city would help to raise awareness, promote reporting and reassure visitors. The campaign has been really popular with venues and businesses promoting it across the city and working with Carbon Creative ensured the materials looked right for the audience and were ready on time for the relaunch of this campaign.”
Candi Turner – Policy Specialist