IMPOSSIBLE ORCHESTRA

Short List
TitleIMPOSSIBLE ORCHESTRA
BrandDEPARTMENT OF FAHCSIA
Product / ServiceCARE AWARE
CategoryA01. Creative Effectiveness
EntrantMcCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
John Mescall McCann Melbourne Executive Creative Director
Pat Baron McCann Melbourne Chief Creative Officer
John Mescall McCann Melbourne Copywriter
Pat Baron McCann Melbourne Art Director
Matt Stoddart McCann Melbourne Art Director
Natasha Wood McCann Melbourne Copywriter
Pat Baron McCann Melbourne Designer
Cayne Snowden McCann Melbourne Designer
Scott Hall McCann Melbourne Designer
Jo Alach McCann Melbourne Producer
Pauline McMillan McCann Melbourne Producer
Adrian Mills McCann Melbourne Managing Director
Megan Jones McCann Melbourne Senior Account Manager
Aaron Wilson Airbag Productions Director
Katrina Flemming Airbag Productions Producer
John Mescall McCann Melbourne Chief Creative Officer

Brief Explanation

Brief In 2012, the Australian Federal Government made an election promise to fund a National Carer Awareness Campaign with an ambition to raise the nation’s understanding, appreciation and recognition of the role of our 2.6 million unpaid family carers. Our job was to get people to understand that this is a national issue. In the year 2055, it is forecast that there will be twice as many Australian’s aged over 65 years than there are today. (1) Strategy In order to prepare the country we needed to: Raise awareness of caring in Australia as a national issue. Increase awareness of the scale of contribution of carers. Increase understanding that carers also require community support. We identified the following strategic imperatives. 1. Depict caring in a new way. 2. Say something people wanted to hear. 3. Do something newsworthy. Creative The idea: Tell the story of what it’s like to care nonstop through a 24-hour, nonstop orchestral concert. To achieve this impossible challenge?we assembled almost 300 of Australia’s finest classical musicians from our leading orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and Sydney Symphony Orchestra and challenged them to play for 24 hours in one of Australia’s finest concert venues – Melbourne’s Hamer Hall. We engaged a world-class conductor and set about creating a musical score with broad appeal. But the concert was about more than music. Brutally honest and moving short films about individual carers were shown during the event, with the orchestra providing a live score. The result was a never-before-seen expression of the act of caring, celebrated in an impossibly beautiful environment, set to an impossibly beautiful score. During the event, carers and those they cared for rotated through the orchestra?as guest musicians and conductors, including the carers from the campaign’s short films. Many of the musicians themselves were also carers, and also told their stories throughout the 24 hours – bringing to life the message: ‘When we work together, nothing is impossible.’ Notable Australians including famous actors and musicians supported the Impossible Orchestra by guest conducting classical pieces. The whole event was captured for a feature-length documentary and broadcast to a live audience online. Results For a small campaign, limited by a budget that precluded us from traditional mass media marketing models, the Impossible Orchestra campaign achieved astonishing results: PR statistics. - The campaign was covered in over 217 news outlets in Australia reaching over 13.7 million people.(2) - #impossibleorchestra was the top trending topic on Twitter for the duration of the campaign.(3) Concert statistics. - 6,500 people attended the concert. The concert venue had a capacity of 1,500.(4) - Over 250,000 people in 40 countries people watched the concert online through a live broadcast.(5) Total campaign reach. - Without spending a cent on paid media, the campaign reached 85% of Australia’s adult population with a powerful, relevant message.(6) (1) Department of Treasury – Intergenerational Report 2015 (2) Porter Novelli Post Campaign Report (3)Twitter Data (4)Arts Centre Melbourne Concert Data (5)Webcasting Post Campaign Report (6)Department of FaHCSIA research conducted by People Theory