Case Study - DoD SAPRO

Addressing Sexual Assault at the Root: A Human-Centered Approach to Prevention

Transforming prevention messaging from compliance-driven education into culture-shaping, human-centered action.

Overview

DoD SAPRO sought to create a prevention campaign that moved beyond awareness and into meaningful behavior change. In environments where sexual assault and harassment can be deeply embedded in culture, education alone is insufficient. The goal was to develop communications that resonated emotionally, empowered leadership, and built lasting cultural accountability.

The Challenge

How do you create prevention messaging people believe in, in a culture conditioned not to take it seriously?

Prevention messaging often struggles to move audiences beyond passive awareness. When topics are sensitive, stigmatized, or historically minimized, trust becomes the central barrier. The challenge was to create a campaign that felt credible, safe to engage with, and capable of motivating both individual accountability and leadership action.

Our Approach

Red Carrot began by listening. Through structured sessions with leaders, stakeholders, and lived experience experts, we identified gaps in existing communications and surfaced the emotional barriers preventing engagement. These insights shaped a campaign designed not just to inform—but to resonate, build empathy, and inspire proactive leadership.

Trauma-Informed Storytelling

We developed a three-part video series centered on lived experience and advocacy. Every production decision followed a trauma-informed framework grounded in consent, comfort, and transparency—ensuring stories were responsibly and respectfully told.

Leadership Modeling

The campaign highlighted what supportive, prevention-focused leadership looks like in practice, equipping leaders with language and behaviors they could confidently adopt.

Continuous Listening & Iteration

Daily social listening and ongoing reporting allowed us to refine messaging in real time, keeping communications responsive to evolving conversations and reinforcing help-seeking and allyship behaviors.

By pairing trauma-informed storytelling with continuous audience insight, we transformed prevention messaging into a human-centered strategy—one that builds trust, drives accountability, and supports long-term cultural change.

The Impact

The campaign humanized prevention, shifting it from a compliance requirement to a culture-building strategy. By pairing emotionally resonant storytelling with responsible production practices and ongoing insight, Red Carrot helped transform awareness into sustained engagement and action.