Industry Trust: Copyright education campaigns valuable
November 23, 2012
By Colin Mann
The ‘Moments Worth Paying For’ campaign spearheaded by pro-copyright consumer education body the Industry Trust for IP Awareness is inspiring film fans to play fair, according to new research unveiled by Nicola Pearcey, Managing Director, Home Entertainment and New Media for film producer and distributor Lionsgate UK, at the Trust’s Annual General Meeting in Soho.
An independent tracking study by ICM reveals that exposure to Moments Worth Paying For makes illegal downloaders more than twice as likely to pay for official film, TV and video. Launched in 2011, the Trust’s education campaign celebrates the entertainment value of film, TV and video and directs the public to Findanyfilm.com, a gateway to official content across all formats.
The impact of Moments Worth Paying For was revealed following the publication by comms regulator Ofcom of its Online Copyright Research, reporting that one in six Internet users accessed illegal entertainment content within a three-month period. Pointing to Ofcom’s findings and the Industry Trust’s success in her speech at the AGM, Pearcey highlighted the vital role of consumer education in tackling copyright infringement.
Pearcey said that Ofcom’s findings reinforced why the industry must continue to promote the wealth of legal choices at consumers’ fingertips and ensure they understand why making a legal choice is so vitally important. “Through the hard work of bodies like the Industry Trust, we can make this ambition a reality. Education campaigns, like Moments Worth Paying For, can help us to win the public’s hearts and minds on the value of our creative content,” she stated.
Liz Bales, Director-General of the Industry Trust for IP Awareness, expressed her delight at seeing the growing body of support behind copyright education, with other industry bodies, ISPs and Government signalling their commitment to it in recent months. “The audio-visual industry has led the charge in this area since it set up the Industry Trust in 2004 with a pure education remit, so we’re very pleased to see it moving up the agenda,” she added.
“Over the last eight years, we’ve experienced, first hand, the very positive impact that education campaigns have on consumers’ attitudes and behaviour,” she continued. “Today we’re privileged to have built up an invaluable bank of consumer insight, which means every pound we spend on behalf of our members is directed to where we can make the biggest impact. The latest tracking results for Moments Worth Paying For are testament to this.”
The Industry Trust’s Moments Worth Paying For campaign targets 16-34 year old men who are the most prolific illegal downloaders. ICM’s research for the Trust indicates that 44 per cent of young men in this age group have accessed unauthorised content. It is a multi-channel communications campaign spanning cinema, outdoor, social media and PR.
The Trust also targets a younger, teenage audience via its in-school BeCreative programme, in partnership with Film Education, and its 38,000-strong Facebook community, ScreenThing, a social hub for young film fans. The programmes aim to engender greater respect for the value of creative content by raising awareness of all the hard work that goes into creating it.