| Title | SUBMERGED STUDIO |
| Brand | ROYAL LIFE SAVING WA |
| Product / Service | DON'T DRINK AND DROWN |
| Category | B05. Fundraising, charities, appeals, non-profit organisations, public health & safety, public awareness |
| Entrant | 303LOWE Subiaco, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company | 303LOWE Subiaco, AUSTRALIA |
| Advertising Agency | 303LOWE Subiaco, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Berney | 303lowe | Creative Director |
| Aaron Collyer | 303lowe | Technical Director |
| Helen King | 303lowe | Copywriter |
| Chanel Hardcastle | 303lowe | Business Executive |
Every year, thousands of teen school leavers take to ocean side locations across Western Australia for an alcohol-infused week of celebration, sun and surf. So how do you express "don’t drink and drown" in a way that will actually get through? By encouraging partygoers to drink water instead of alcohol we knew we could eliminate at least one of the high risk factors. In turn, we knew this would also help get school leavers to make smarter decisions around the water.
Schoolies generally aren't responsive towards traditional safety messages - so we made the channel itself fun and engaging, incentivising "good" behaviour, and literally immersed it in their share-centric online culture. The Royal Life Saving brand champions the "Don't Drink and Drown" notion which spearheads all of their campaigns. It is ingrained into the psyche of those who grew up in WA. The campaign was successful because it engaged schoolies proactively to curb their drinking habits whilst swimming in the ocean.
What do ‘schoolies’ like more than drinking? We designed an underwater “submerged studio” available to anyone who chose bottled water over alcohol. Beneath the water, 20m offshore, a scuba-clad photographer was waiting to take their portraits. Photographs were automatically watermarked with our message: “WE CHOSE H20 TO POSE BELOW,” and uploaded to social media so that friends could join in in real-time. The aim was to incentivize the ‘good’ behaviour and reward participants with professional pictures of schoolies. In its essence, teens were choosing water over alcohol and shared their choice and message with friends and family in real time.
The risk of the occurrence of drownings in Australia spikes once a year at a drinking party that marks the end of high school. 'Don't Drink & Drown' was both our message and literal aim for a day of students celebrating. Around 2500 water bottles were handed out in the opening hours of the “Submerged Studio” to the 5000 party-goers. Each of those recipients shared our message 'I CHOSE H2O TO POSE BELOW' socially, which resulted in 21,000 engagements in real-time at the party on Facebook alone. There were no cases of lifeguard intervention in the ocean, and no drownings.