Take the Lead 2017

The South Downs has a rich and diverse landscape – from heathland to MOD land – which all has its own lovely set of uniquenesses; that the public should be aware of … particularly dog walkers. Building upon the efforts from previous years, the SDNP wants to continue to spread the word about responsible dog ownership, whilst walking your pooch within on the downs.

From raising awareness of ground nesting birds in Heathlands, MOD land rules right through to good old fashioned picking up dog poo – we needed to tackle a way of getting our point across but with the good nature that it is intended.

We have developed a 6 month creative campaign that is designed to build and maintain awareness. Rather than adopt a top down approach to guidance, we tackled the messaging with a humorous approach; weaving the core topic points into the creative. 

The team has been having a lot of fun producing a suite of 4 films whereby 4 dogs confess to their past misdemeanours and misbehaving ways whilst on the downs. Now reformed good folk they feel it only right to share their experiences so we can all learn from them. Named “Canine Confessions“, we hope you will enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed making them. You can watch the first two films below.

The campaign has now started and we are excitedly watching the creative campaign that we have lovingly produced be released into the wild. Want to get involved and help share the message, then why not become an ambassador or take part in the #taketheleadto photo competition. For more information head on over to the Take the Lead section within the SDNP site and enjoy. 

This campaign was supported by the Heathlands Reunited initiative whereby eleven organisations led by the South Downs National Park Authority have joined forces to expand and connect the existing 1% of heathland left in the national park. The intention is to create wildlife corridors forming an area of heathland greater than 1,200 football pitches by the end of the five year project.