Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

We gained donations and awareness for a New Zealand crisis helpline, by collaborating with famous 72-year-old New Zealand singers, to recreate the songs of 27 Club members. The 72 Club's first single, Janis Joplin's 'Piece of My Heart' was released through music streaming sites and radio stations. A music video, street posters, merchandise and social media created hype and talkability, while a PR campaign told stories of 72 Club members and survivors, while ads ran alongside the stories directing Kiwis to a website where they could donate. Everything worked together to make the campaign Lifeline's most successful fundraising campaign ever.

Describe any restrictions or regulations regarding Healthcare/RX/Pharma communications in your country/region including:

Our idea had to meet Lifeline and the New Zealand News Media Standards Authority’s careful guidelines on the ethical treatment of suicide-related communications. The power of our idea was taking a deeply tragic conversation, and making it a celebration of life.

Describe the target audience and why your work is relevant to them.

Target audiences 1. We needed to capture the attention of New Zealand news outlets and create a story they could tell. 2..NZers who would donate and share the campaign on social. 3. The campaign needed to have a positive message for those who might need to use Lifelines services.

Background

In 2018 New Zealand’s suicide rate was the worst it had ever been, with the highest youth suicide rate in the OCED. New Zealand's leading Crisis helpline, Lifeline was founded on the belief that listening saves lives. But following a devastating funding cut, a quarter of their calls were going unanswered. Lifeline needed a lifeline. A campaign that would motivate Kiwis to donate to keep this critical service open. We needed to raise $300,000, enough to fund Lifeline’s free helpline for another year helping them to save more Kiwi lives. On top of this, they wanted to create a movement that people could join to help their ultimate objective of creating a suicide-free New Zealand. The campaign to have a positive message for those who needed to use their phone lines.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Instead of talking about the tragedy of death we flipped the conversation by turning our appeal into a celebration of life. The 27 Club is made up of a long list of celebrated pop culture icons (Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to name a few), who died at the age of 27. Sometimes from suicide but always from some kind of self-destructive behavior. To raise awareness and donations for Lifeline, we turned the infamous 27 Club on its head, by re-recording their songs with famous NZ musicians who have lived to be old. We launched The 72 Club with their first single, Janis Joplin's 'Piece of my Heart' was launched online as a song and music video.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

Our strategy was to show how Lifeline enables the potential for a life to be well lived by: 1. Creating a connection Giving creative expression to our insight would help donors identify with Lifeline’s cause. 2. Giving scale to the idea Suicide is a national issue and our fund-raising target was ambitious, we needed an approach that could reach a wide range of potential donors. 3. Making the path to donation seamless Finding easy ways for people to act on our communication to donate Instead of making a traditional advertising campaign about a subject that no one wants to talk about. We gained donations and awareness for Lifeline, by collaborating with famous 72-year-old New Zealand singers, to recreate the songs of 27 Club members. We gained hype and talkability for the song by treating the

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The song was released on Spotify and iTunes and was launched like any other new single from a popular band, with street posters, Spotify ads, a music video, merchandise, and a social media and PR campaign. At the same time, a story in the country’s biggest Newspaper explained why Lifeline needed donations and the music video was released through PR and social. Throughout the day, radio DJs talked about the campaign and played the song on air and NZ influencers encouraged their followers to join the 72 Club and donate. Then, in the evening the country’s biggest news shows ran stories on The 72 club and Lifeline. Over the next few weeks, we used a media partnership to keep the campaign top of mind, running interviews with 72 Club singers and survivors in press and radio. These stories ran alongside ads that encouraged people to donate.

List the results (20% of vote)

The track appeared in the NZ iTunes charts, the campaign flooded social media and was talked about on the country’s biggest TV news shows and radio stations resulting in it reaching the equivalent of the entire New Zealand population several times over. This campaign needed to gain Lifeline $300,000 in donations. We reached and then nearly doubled that goal, far surpassing previous fundraising efforts for Lifeline and setting a new precedent for the organisation. And we generated a pipeline of higher value repeat donors, ensuring less canvassing work would need to be done for future appeals. But most importantly our campaign is now ensuring that Lifeline is not missing any critical calls, so more NZers can live to be old.