RESPONSIBLE DRINKING

TitleRESPONSIBLE DRINKING
BrandNSW GOVERNMENT
Product / ServiceNSW MINISTRY OF HEALTH
CategoryA09. Best use or integration of digital or social media
EntrantMEDIACOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Contributing Company THE PRECINCT Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company MEDIACOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency MEDIACOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Ann Foo The Precinct Editor
Tylea Gilmer The Precinct Production Assistant:
Richard Teague The Precinct Sound Recordist
Eren Sener The Precinct Sound Recordist
Luke Symes The Precinct Camera Assistant
Marden Dean The Precinct Cinematographer
Richard Vilensky The Precinct Director
Esme Fisher The Precinct Producers
Aragorn Fenton The Precinct Producers
Henry Motteram The Precinct Executive Producer
Victor Condogeorges Mediacom Assistant Sem
Stefan Boden Mediacom Media Planner
Julia Amouyal Mediacom Account Manager
Rob Shwetz Mediacom Strategy Director
James Sneddon Mediacom Group Account Director
Taylor Thornton Mediacom Copywriter
Alexa Hohenberg Mediacom Digital Producer
Alistair Ferrier Mediacom Executive Producer
Shelby Craig Mediacom Art Director
Gemma Hunter Mediacom Executive Creative Director

The Campaign

In Australia branded content is a growing area and is welcomed by brands and most channels. There are no restrictions imposed by TV stations other than quality control.

Results

Challenge and Objectives Anti-social and violent behavior resulting from binge drinking in Sydney’s King Cross was becoming the norm. We needed to quickly and significantly shift attitudes and behaviours of a highly cynical audience of 16-24 year olds in NSW, challenging given potentially patronizing government messages and a small budget of $507K. . Strategy The creative message of ‘What are you doing to yourself?’ sought to challenge one’s self-perception around behavior resulting from drinking. The key insight was that the majority of just wanted to go out and have a good time, and were embarrassed when friends were drunk and anti-social. We needed to shift their point of reference. Have them recognize how people would really see them when they were drunk, and the consequences. And have this realization provide permission to call out friends’ anti-social and drunken behavior, and use the strength of the mass to moderate the behavior of the minority. Execution An impactful physical media presence was a given. But our research showed planning for a night out was just as important as the night out itself. And when the audience was in the planning mindset, they were more open to our messages. This ‘Path to Party’ – the bullseye to reach them before they went out. We needed to hit home their sense of peer group responsibility. Get them to consider both their own and their friends’ drinking behaviour. And demonstrate that binge drinking has social, emotional and physical consequences far beyond just that night. We created 5 stories of people who had ‘seen it all’; bartenders, taxi drivers, doormen, a recovering alcoholic and DJ. And shared these through a tailored seeding strategy across key social hang-outs. Niche lifestyle sites, social media channels, YouTube, music and fashion sites worked together to provide the reminders for a safe night out.

With limited funds we needed to be smart in our approach. We identified Sound Alliance as a credible partner. Our audience visited the site and tended to spend time checking out the latest tunes and clubbing news. In partnership we created ‘weekend alert’ videos showcasing the stories while explaining the story behind their creation. We also created a network of discovery, seeding the content across Facebook, relevant website and blogs, youth tastemaker sites such as Lost in E Minor who ran it in their editorial ‘We are Watching” space for 4 weeks as well as YouTube and Twitter. Front-ending our activity created enough momentum for the videos to reach the YouTube Charts where they stayed in the top 10 videos for the first 2 weeks of the campaign confirming their status as current viral videos.

Third party research revealed: • 23.6% lift in those that would take responsibility and pay more attention to their friends’ drinking • 20.1% lift to consider their own drinking behaviour • 26.4% lift in prompting consideration about the consequences of drinking too much Most importantly behavior changed, with zero incidents of violent behaviour in the Cross and reports of anti-social behaviour (as reported by NSW Police records) were down by more than 75% YOY for the period. On a small budget we spoke to 91% of 16-24’s in NSW Metro. The 5 videos delivered 309,475 views, 5,200 likes, 680 shares, 249 positive comments, YouTube ranked 4 videos in Top10 best viral for 2 consecutive weeks. Furthermore 64% of audience watched the entire video, exceeding the industry benchmark by more than 75%*