Grand Prix 2014

Client Business in the Community (BITC)

In the UK, once someone has a criminal conviction they have to declare it by ticking a box on a form whenever they apply for a job. This makes securing employment almost impossible and being unemployed makes them significantly more likely to reoffend – in turn costing the UK economy £11bn per year.

BITC wanted to tackle this by calling on UK employers to create a fair opportunity for ex-offenders by removing this tick box from initial application forms.

During the campaign 17 companies, collectively employing 175,000 people, removed the box indicating whether an applicant has a criminal record, allowing all applicants to be assessed equally.

The campaign was five times more effective at opening up jobs for ex-offenders than similar efforts in the USA. It was no small task, and required a major overhaul of the recruitment process.

Most notably, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, one of the world's most prestigious law firms, cited the video as their trigger: "We'd been talking about it for a while but the spark for change came when a Partner at the firm shared the film with the HR and PR teams. Seeing the issue from a different perspective encouraged everyone to take action and within weeks we'd banned the box."

627 ex-offenders have now found employment, translating to a saving of approximately £29.5million to the UK economy.

The campaign also triggered global media coverage, reaching an estimated 5 million people.

Judges comment

"What truly distinguished this campaign was the fantastic human insight at its heart. This insight exposed and tapped into the audience's prejudices, making them that much more receptive to the entire message." – Mark Runacus, Chair of the DMA Awards Council and Director of Loyalty & Relationship Management, Karmarama

Team Alice Hooper - Client Service Director, Sarah Kay - Account Director, Sofia Sarkar - Account Manager, Kit Altin - Planning Director, Justin Tindall - Executive Creative Director, Adam Tucker - Creative Director, Hugh Todd - Creative Director, Phillip Meyler - Creative, Darren Keff - Creative, Graeme Light - Executive TV Producer, Natalie Kozlowska - TV Producer, Dougal Wilson - Director, Peter Eichhorn - Technical Director, Camille Sims - Digital Producer, Patrick Craig - Producer, Benjamin Todd - Director of Photography, Ed Cheeseman - Editor