Brief Explanation

Young Australians get drunk. Really drunk. In fact, ‘drinking yourself stupid’ is seen as a big part of growing up. But this isn’t healthy and nor should it be so acceptable. The societal cost of alcohol misuse in Australia is estimated to be $14.5 billion per year. And 18 - 24 year olds are amongst the worst offenders of misuse due to their frequent high risk or ‘binge’ drinking behaviour. We were tasked by DrinkWise Australia, a not-for-profit Social Marketing organisation funded by the alcohol industry, to help influence young Australians into moderating their drinking. But we weren’t the first to try. Given the size of the problem, many before had tried to ‘scare’ them into stopping by showing the horrific consequences posed by binge drinking - like violence, injury and sexual regret. But the message wasn’t getting through. We quickly learnt why. Telling young Australians to ‘stop’ wouldn’t work. Even reminding them to drink less missed the big issue - that moderation was seen to be an act of social suicide. It became clear that we had to find a way to make the benefit of moderating outweigh the social cost. We did this through ‘How To Drink Properly’ - an unexpected, irreverent, profanity-packed campaign that said you could still drink and have fun - as long as you did it ‘properly’. Based around a suave yet cheeky James Bond-esque character, he helped position moderation as a classy, sophisticated and aspirational act - and suggested that ‘binge’ drinking was something best left to ‘amateurs’. We built this campaign idea around the journey of a drinker on a ‘night out’ so our message was seen and delivered when they were actually drinking. Each and every campaign touch point helped to create an integrated, impactful guide on ‘keeping your shit together’. And instead of tuning out, our target tuned in. The campaign amassed over 2 million total video views, 57,000 shares, 87% positive sentiment and a phenomenal Facebook engagement rate of 5.4% (which 2 times the alcohol industry average). How To Drink Properly infiltrated the binge culture and shifted it towards the better, with 81% of our target thinking about the benefits of moderating and 71% reflecting on their drinking behaviour when out. And of those who saw the campaign, 1 in 3 claimed to be drinking less as a result of it.