Title | DEADLY QUESTIONS |
Brand | ABORIGINAL VICTORIA, DEPARTMENT OF PREMIER & CABINET |
Product / Service | ABORIGINAL VICTORIA, DEPARTMENT OF PREMIER & CABINET |
Category | A10. Not-for-profit / Charity / Government |
Entrant | CLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA |
Idea Creation | CLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA |
Media Placement | MEDIACOM Brisbane, AUSTRALIA |
Production | FINISH PRODUCTIONS Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
Additional Company | ABORIGINAL VICTORIA, DEPARTMENT OF PREMIER & CABINET Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Josh Smith | Aboriginal Victoria, Department of Premier & Cabinet | Executive Director |
Andrew Gargett | Aboriginal Victoria, Department of Premier & Cabinet | Director, Office of the Executive Director |
Amy Hattam | Aboriginal Victoria, Department of Premier & Cabinet | Senior Communications & Events Manager |
Drew Higgins | Aboriginal Victoria, Department of Premier & Cabinet | Strategic Communications Advisor |
Jack Register | Aboriginal Victoria, Department of Premier & Cabinet | Manger, Office of the Executive Director |
James McGrath | Clemenger BBDO | Executive Chairman |
Evan Roberts | Clemenger BBDO | Executive Creative Director |
Stephen de Wolf | Clemenger BBDO | Chief Creative Officer |
Carmela Soares | Clemenger BBDO | Executive Creative Director |
Nicole Sykes | Clemenger BBDO | Creative Director |
Lee Sunter | Clemenger BBDO | Senior Creative |
Hilary Badger | Clemenger BBDO | Creative Director |
Rowan Mansfield | Clemenger BBDO | Creative |
Elsa Caruso | Clemenger BBDO | Creative |
Damien Asling | Clemenger BBDO | Creative |
Adam Hengstberger | Clemenger BBDO | Digital Designer |
Brendan Sharman | Clemenger BBDO | Digital Designer |
Richard Franklin | Freelance | Director/Cultural Champion |
Sonia von Bibra | Clemenger BBDO | Agency Executive Producer |
Cynthia Bons | Clemenger BBDO | Agency Producer |
Sylvain Simao | Clemenger BBDO | Technical Director |
Todd Armstrong | Clemenger BBDO | Senior Full-Stack Developer |
Caterine Dattoma | Clemenger BBDO | Front End Developer |
Danny Li | Clemenger BBDO | Junior Full-Stack Developer |
Sonali Bhattacharya | Clemenger BBDO | Tester |
Simon Lamplough | Clemenger BBDO | Deputy CEO |
Naomi Gorringe | Clemenger BBDO | Group Business Director |
Candice Koffke | Clemenger BBDO | Group Business Director |
Kelly Brigham | Clemenger BBDO | Project Director |
Ryan Smith | Clemenger BBDO | Strategic Planner |
Brie Stewart | Clemenger BBDO | Head of Social |
Rebecca de Beer | Clemenger BBDO | Communications Planner |
Casey Henderson | Clemenger BBDO | Creative |
Daniel Klug | Clemenger BBDO | Communications Planner |
David Lo Monaco | Clemenger BBDO | Social Media Manager |
Australia is a unique country with a unique cultural history dating back 70,000 years. But despite 230 years of colonial settlement, Australia is also sadly unique for being the only member of the Commonwealth that does not hold a treaty with its first peoples. In 2016, when a new Government entered office in the state of Victoria and asked and asked the Aboriginal community what they wanted – the answer was resoundingly Treaty. For context, Treaty is an agreement between the state government and Aboriginal peoples. The contents of the Treaty are worked out between the two parties. It’s not a public vote. But a Treaty still requires public support to ensure it’s accepted. And to gain that, we needed to confront non-Aboriginal people’s prejudices about Aboriginal culture. Our brief was to build support for the treaty process primarily among the non-Aboriginal community, but also within the diverse Aboriginal community.
Deadly Questions. You ask. Aboriginal Victorians answer. Deadly Questions is a platform that connects everyday Australians with everyday Aboriginal Victorians, building open dialogue around the topics Australians have avoided for countless years. To the average person, ‘Deadly’ this might sound dangerous or even ominous. But in Aboriginal circles, ‘deadly’ translates to cool or awesome. This asymmetry was a poignant reflection of the asymmetry of perspective not uncommon in everyday Australia. Critically – the campaign did not control the message. The non-Aboriginal community controlled the questions and could ask them anonymously. Aboriginal Victorians controlled the answers. And the answers were as diverse and conflicting as people are in real life. Through these answers we were able to broach the topics that needed to be discussed for Treaty to be successful: race, racism, power, history, politics, and reconciliation. But there was also room for the everyday too: food, family, technology and tradition.
‘Build support of Treaty’ seemed simple enough. But the notion of Treaty for an Australian can be a threatening one. Despite Australia priding itself as a nation of ‘the fair go’, Treaty raised guards. So to build to the Treaty conversation, we had to find another way to start. Research showed that 84% of non-Aboriginal Victorians believed it was importance to learn more about Aboriginal culture and identity. However, the problem is they didn’t know where to begin. Non-Aboriginal Victorians ‘walk on eggshells’. They don’t want to say the wrong thing. We wanted to tap into that desire to learn, but also the fear of asking. Because if they learn about Aboriginal identity without judgement, it can open them to learning about Treaty too. It would soften attitudes and cast a conversation about ‘Treaty’ not as a political one, but something that is about learning more about Aboriginal culture.
Sparking conversation with provocative questions We launched with distinctive OOH showing questions most Australians wouldn’t dare ask out loud, helping demonstrate the importance of asking questions. We used a diverse group of Aboriginal Victorians to pre-record their answers to provocative questions, such as ‘is being Aboriginal just the colour of your skin?’ or ‘why can’t Aboriginal people get over the past’ through film, helping spark conversation and curiosity among the wider community. Driving site visitation and answering questions Deadly Questions is at its core a participation platform. Our media elements pushed people towards deadlyquestions.vic.gov.au where users could read existing questions and answers, along with ask their own. Introducing ‘Treaty’ messaging Using the Q&A format, we introduced questions about a treaty. Given its ambiguous outcomes, we needed to focus not on what a treaty was, but why it was needed and what it really meant to the people it affected.
We got Australia talking At launch we generated 371 news clippings, resulting in a cumulative audience reach of 110 million in the first 4 weeks. This placed us on mainstream television stations, weekend newspapers, and the country’s biggest news websites. We had thousands of questions asked, answered and read Victorians spent 3,950 hours on the site. 3,474 unique questions were asked, 2,703 (legitimate) questions were answered and 260,000 answers viewed. This content now forms one of the most diverse and accessible forms of Aboriginal education online that can continue to educate for years to come. Attitudes shifted to the positive There were significant shifts to Victorian’s wanting to learn more about Aboriginal people (61% to 77%) and formalizing the process (43% to 60%). And in late June 2018, the Victorian government passed a historic law to create a Treaty framework, in which this result was supported by our campaign’s efforts.