The Industry Trust

The Industry Trust was set up in 2004 to address the challenge of film and TV copyright infringement. Collaborating with its member organisations from distributors, cinemas and on and offline retailers, its aim is to highlight the positive role copyright plays in protecting creative ideas by inspiring audiences to value great movie moments and choose to watch film, TV, and video via legitimate sources. Ultimately, helping to secure the livelihoods of the 300,000 or so people who work in the UK film and TV industry.

In 2007, the Digital Economy Act was introduced, aimed at altering public behaviour around online copyright infringement by imposing obligations on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to notify users and act against persistent infringers. However, this official, dictatorial approach doesn’t get to the heart of the issue or inspire the people who are most likely to download illegally – the younger generation.

So, what does it take to change a behaviour that the law cannot seem to stop? 

We know from countless studies, including a Harvard study, that young people don’t engage with the concept of illegality; they’re motivated by what they see as fair. And many, especially younger males, don’t prioritise the consequences of unauthorised access. The solution, then, is to bridge that distance with a compelling alternative that fosters a more emotional connection. This is the strategy we used to create the Moments worth paying for campaign, which proved successful in boosting awareness from 12% to 40% and unprompted awareness from just 4% to 18% in a single year.

With males under 34 years old most likely to commit copyright theft.

At the same time, most anti-piracy initiatives and regulations had failed to inspire or prevent those most likely to offend.

Meanwhile, unauthorised access continued to have a lasting impact on the value of the industry. Unless bodies like The Industry Trust could alter attitudes and behaviour, it was more likely to be a case of when, rather than if, the film industry would see a significant drop in revenue and value.

In response, our challenge was to create a cross-channel multimedia campaign that made the people most likely to offend care. The goal was to change behaviour by celebrating the value of originality and the brilliance and preciousness of audio-visual creativity.

Our aim was to win the hearts and minds of our target audiences by helping them to see the value of copyright and audio-visual creative work, in the hope this would help reduce the acceptability of copyright infringement.

“Our solution used powerful imagery to visualise the impact that film and TV can have on its audience by moving them, creating an immediate and emotional connection. We had to make people aware and to care, so they would begin to consider changing their behaviour. Our big idea celebrated the value of originality and the brilliance and preciousness of audio-visual creativity and the impact it can have on you, the viewer.”

We wanted to focus on celebrating the positives rather than highlighting loss or throwing blame. Capitalising on audiences’ passion for film and TV content to inspire greater respect for copyright and the value of creative works.