Bethan Thomas


Designer / Researcher



CEASE (Centre to End all Sexual Exploitation)




User Research




CEASE’s mission is to expose and dismantle the cultural and commercial forces driving sexual exploitation, focusing on trafficking, prostitution and pornography, and how they are connected. The goal of this research project was to better understand the charity’s audience, gaining insight into attitudes and behaviour which will then inform their communications strategy going forwards. 

In collaboration with Alex Barker Consultancy.





The Problem:
The issues are complex and hard to hear, which is a barrier to getting their message across.

CEASE are creating change and making a name for themselves with policymakers in their mission to end all sexual exploitation. However, they are not yet a household name, and their focus on lobbying and policy change is not engaging the public or resonating with the broad audience they are keen to reach. An overarching problem that the charity are faced with is that people generally feel uncomfortable talking about sex. The charity aim to highlight the connection between the selling of sex in real life to the selling of sex online, and much of their work is about online pornography and its harms. The issues they tackle are complex and hard to hear, which is a barrier to getting their message across.





We kicked off the discovery phase with an in-person workshop, with four members of the CEASE team brainstorming with Alex and I to identify audience roles and goals. We then ideated on what are the drivers, blockers and risks associated with the charity’s mission. These activities allowed us to get to know the audience groups and identify challenges the charity faces in relation to engagement.

A key learning was that their audience for legislative work, such as policy makers, is very different from the general public, being more aware and used to discussing difficult and sensitive topics. Our analysis would then focus on members of the general public across four groups:

- Young People aged 18-25
- Parents of teenagers
- Secondary school teachers
- Donors






Research

We began research activities designing a survey that focused on attitudes around online pornography and understanding of sexual exploitation. The questions were crafted with the CEASE team to ensure they have the right sentiment, and will successfully convey data that will be useful. A third party company was contracted to build the survey and recruit participants.

I honed the questions and extrapolated them to develop a set of discussion guides for the in-depth interviews. The challenge with the survey and interview questions was to find a balance; to ensure neutrality but also acknowledge that the charity believe there are harms associated with online pornography and related topics.

I carried out 18 one-to-one interviews in total, gaining insight into people’s attitudes and opinions, and sensitively exploring questions to provoke detailed answers. Many real-life experiences were shared, resulting in a rich set of qualitative data. I recorded the interviews and used analysis software Dovetail to transcribe and summarise the interviews. Using AI tools enabled me to highlight insights effectively, and focus on 
key words or topics.




Analysis

I carried out extensive analysis of the survey and interviews, developing a methodology to pull out question-based insights. Once I’d reviewed all the data I began to distill key themes and build a findings deck, explaining the themes in a digestible way.
  





Findings

I developed a narrative throughout the project, with each theme feeding into the next, painting a gradual picture of the attitudes and opinions that emerged across the groups. I made the themes tangible with short, impactful statements which summarised findings, and were supported by quotes from the interviews, and data from the survey. The themes were relevant to all audience groups, with some relating to a certain group more than others.   The findings were multi-layered and nuanced, with some statistics surfacing contradictory stories, which I was able to interpret by referencing other findings.





Audience Personas


I created five personas representing the four audience groups - with two for young people as the insights across males and females in this group are markedly different. The personas are intended for use as valuable, evidence-based tools for the charity to refer to when developing future strategy and messaging. They feature stats and importantly identify user needs to be addressed.




What was the result?


The project concluded with an ambitious proposition to the charity to rethink their brand and evolve their mission. We acknowledged that the policy work they are currently doing is effective, and to continue with this, but to gain new audiences a change is needed. The strategic recommendations we devised consisted of five focus areas for development, broken down into clear actionable points.  The sentiment behind them was about being more human and resonating on a more personal level.   We delivered the final presentation to key team members - the Head of Communications, the Head of Policy and Public Affairs and the Co-Founder, with whom we’d built a strong rapport and received positive feedback.
 


 “As the Head of Comms, I feel so supported and understood. Your sensitivity and expertise has been highly valued on this project. You’ve articulated things I have been struggling to communicate and the insights you’ve surfaced will strengthen our work going forwards” 

Jo Black, Head of Communications at CEASE - June 2025





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