Saving toddlers’ lives with the ‘Don’t duck out’ campaign.

Client: Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety

Situation: A staggering 12 children drowned in backyard pools in Australia during 2017-18, which is what makes the ‘Make it SAFE’ campaign so important. The ‘Make it SAFE’ program raises awareness of backyard drowning risks and how to reduce them.

With the 2018-19 summer season approaching, the government in Western Australia launched an initiative to raise awareness of the dangers of paddling pools, leveraging the established ‘Make it SAFE’ campaign to reach out to parents with young children. The stats show that toddlers can drown, silently, in only three centimetres of water and within just 20 seconds.

Deliverables: Our friends at Key2Creative approached us for help with the campaign, from messaging and conceptualisation, through to script writing and copywriting. Our copywriters, in collaboration with Key2 and partners Split Screen and Solo Films, started by reworking the SAFE acronym to suit the new focus of this year’s campaign:

  • Supervise. Within arm’s reach.

  • Act. Learn CPR and be emergency-ready.

  • Fence. Pools deeper than 30cm.

  • Empty. And store safely.

We then developed a range of campaign options, which we presented to the client, with the stakeholder group ultimately choosing the ‘Don’t duck out’ campaign as a vehicle for the ‘Make it SAFE’ message.

With summer blazing towards us, there then followed a whirlwind of writing activity. This included drafting video scripts and writing website content, as well as messaging for in-store collateral (shelf wobblers and giveaway Dippy Duck toys) for retail partners who agreed to help promote the ‘Don’t duck out’ campaign.

Result: Check out the ‘Don’t duck out’ campaign website and videos, which generated a whole heap of PR and public debate.

Find out more about our freelance copywriting expertise, spanning everything from advertising and marketing to website copywriting. Or contact our copywriters in Perth for an informal chat about how our words might be able to help you inspire positive change.