THE 72 CLUB

Bronze Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHE 72 CLUB
BrandLIFELINE
Product / ServiceSUICIDE PREVENTION
CategoryF04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
EntrantDDB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Idea Creation DDB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
PR MANGO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production DDB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production 2 SWEETSHOP Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Damon Stapleton DDB Group New Zealand Regional Chief Creative Officer
Shane Bradnick DDB Group Executive Creative Director
James Conner DDB Group New Zealand Creative Director
Christie Cooper DDB Group New Zealand Creative Director
Nikki McKelvie DDB Group New Zealand Lead Business Director
Carly Pratt DDB Group New Zealand Senior Business Manager
Ravina Raju DDB Group New Zealand Business Manager
Georgina Foot DDB Group New Zealand Business Coordinator
Anna Gunnell DDB Group New Zealand Senior Planner
Damien Eames DDB Group New Zealand Senior Planner
Judy Thompson DDB Group New Zealand Executive Producer
Alva Waldron DDB Group New Zealand Agency Producer
Mike Hammond DDB Group New Zealand Senior Editor
Mark Trethewey DDB Group New Zealand Editor
Dan Cummings DDB Group New Zealand Editor
Dan Partington DDB Group New Zealand Audio Engineer
Liz Knox DDB Group New Zealand Digital Director
Lizzy Funaki DDB Group New Zealand Senior Digital Producer
Jason Vertongen DDB Group New Zealand Head of Digital Design
Ashley Cook DDB Group New Zealand Digital Designer
Emmanuel Ordorisio DDB Group New Zealand Digital Developer
Paul Hutcheon DDB Group New Zealand Front End Developer
Jacob Newton DDB Group New Zealand Digital Copywriter
Josep Jover DDB Group New Zealand Digital Art Director
James Li DDB Group New Zealand Motion Design
Sheetal Pradhan DDB Group New Zealand Digital Producer
Mike McMillan DDB Group New Zealand Developer
Liam Norries DDB Group New Zealand Social Planner
Nabell Dada DDB Group New Zealand Digital Campaign Manager
Marcel de Ruiter DDB Group New Zealand Studio Director
Amanda Summersby DDB Group New Zealand Print Producer
Shelley Cousins DDB Group New Zealand Print Producer
Gordon Moir DDB Group New Zealand Retoucher
Nicole Dekker DDB Group New Zealand Senior Mac Designer
Barry Cumming DDB Group New Zealand Senior Mac Designer
Dylan Pharazyn The Sweetshop Director
Laria Tiffin The Sweetshop Producer
Fiona King The Sweetshop Managing Director
Marty Williams The Sweetshop DOP Lighting Cameraman
Adam Luxton The Sweetshop DOP Lighting Cameraman
Stu Bedford The Machine Room Online
John Baxter Perceptual Engineering Post Production
Johnathan Mihaljevich Franklin Rd Music Licensing
Minky Stapleton Minky Stapleton Illustrator
Mat Baker N/A Photographer
Karl Baker N/A Photographer Assistant/Retoucher
Claudia Macdonald Mango Managing Director
Sean Brown Mango General Manager
Max Burt Mango Senior Account Manager
Isabelle Clarke Mango Account Executive

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Lifeline needed a high-impact, effective call to action that would motivate kiwis to donate. Our campaign acted like a Trojan Horse, capturing the attention of the nation, putting a spotlight on the issue and spurring kiwis to take action. We created a story that the media could and wanted to cover and the public wouldn't be ashamed to share on their social media pages. It also aligned perfectly with Lifeline’s philosophy that the conversation around suicide needs to be managed in a well-considered, ethical way, inspiring people towards positive outakes rather than anything that could encourage suicidal ideation.

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.

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)

Instead of treating the release of the song as a traditional fundraising or advertising campaign, we treated it like any other song release with a launch party, street posters, merchandise, PR and a music video – all intended to generate substantial hype and talkability around The 72 Club. Target audiences 1. With only a small media budget to work with it was important that we could capture the attention of New Zealand biggest news outlets. 2. We also needed an idea that young New Zealanders would share on social media so we turned The 72 Club into a club that anyone could join.. 3. The campaign needed to reach an older audience who were most likely to donate. 4. Lifeline wanted the campaign to have a positive message for New Zealanders with mental health or addiction issues who might need to use their services.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Ahead of launch, we reached out to NZs largest commercial radio network, NZME, seeding in the song and the story behind it, so that come launch day we’d be sure of generating wall-to-wall airplay across the country’s biggest commercial music stations – with DJ’s primed to tell people how to donate. We also pre-arranged front-page coverage in NZs largest daily newspaper (The New Zealand Herald) and ensured that the same evening our campaign would be aired on NZs most-watched current affairs show, Seven Sharp. On the day of Launch, The 72 Club was everywhere. In our biggest paper, playing on our largest radio stations, and featuring on all our biggest TV news shows. Over the next few weeks, to keep the campaign top of mind, we placed a pipeline of editorial interviews with 72 Club members, lifeline volunteers and survivors in newspapers, on radio and online.

List the results (30% of vote) – must include at least two of the following tiers:

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.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and/or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

Suicide is a very sensitive subject with strict laws in New Zealand around how the media can report on it. With a limited budget and a lot of donations to collect, we knew we had to come up with an idea that would capture the attention of the media and give them an angle they would want to talk about. Instead of talking about the tragedy of death, we flipped the conversation by turning the campaign into a celebration of life. Creating a story that the media could cover and content that the public wouldn't be ashamed to share on their social media pages.