Prod

In collaboration with West Midlands Police, Tinker Taylor has worked on the #LifeOrKnife campaign—a vital initiative to prevent knife crime and foster safer communities across the West Midlands. Targeted at young people, parents and educators, the campaign is designed to raise awareness and provide essential resources, delivering a powerful message: The choice is yours.

The campaign launched with an impactful film about Ronan, a 16-year-old from Wolverhampton who tragically lost his life after being mistaken for someone else. By sharing Ronan’s story, his family hopes to reveal the profound impact of knife crime, encouraging young people to make life-affirming choices. To resonate with the target audience of 14-18-year-olds, we created the film in a fast-paced, 9:16 portrait format – optimised for Instagram and Snap Chat Stories and TikTok. Authentic mixed-media clips from Ronan’s sister’s phone were incorporated, enhancing the raw and personal feel of the film. 

Tinker Taylor managed a paid social media campaign to amplify the film’s reach, targeting our intended 14–18-year-old audience. The campaign ran for two weeks and generated over 1 million impressions, 313,683 video views, and 2,384 landing page visits. 

The tremendous success of Ronan’s film led to Phase 2 of the campaign: a video podcast that deepened the conversation. Led by anti-violence advocate Craig Pinkney, the podcast brought together individuals personally impacted by knife crime—Craig, Will, Nikita, and Paul—who shared their stories in an honest, unfiltered discussion. The series used a mix of long-form 16:9 video and audio podcasts for the website and YouTube, alongside short-form 9:16 clips for social media. The launch coincided with an OOH campaign, with ads positioned where young people hang out, such as New Street Train Station & Birmingham Bull Ring.

The #LifeOrKnife campaign continues to resonate, motivating young people to make safer choices and providing tools to better understand the dangers of knife crime. We’re honoured to work alongside West Midlands Police in this critical initiative and are proud to contribute to positive social change across the Midlands.