New Zealand Fire Services urges Kiwis to check their smoke alarms in new TV spots via FCB NZ

With more than half of the country’s smoke alarms (60%) having either flat batteries or none at all, FCB New Zealand has launched a new campaign for the New Zealand Fire Service, to help get Kiwis checking their smoke alarms regularly.

The campaign includes two TVCs, banner advertisements and Facebook outreach, skewed towards key audiences, who are identified as likely to believe that a fire ‘won’t happen to them’.  These include high-risk groups – especially renters, at-risk families, the elderly and people living alone.

VIEW THE FAMILIES SPOT

VIEW THE FLATMATES SPOT

FCB New Zealand’s executive creative director Tony Clewett says the campaign was about doing what you can to protect your loved ones.

Says Clewett: “80 per cent of New Zealand homes have smoke alarms installed, but more than half of those don’t actually work. A tragedy in the making. Our brief was simple: get Kiwis off their butts and up the ladder, making sure their smoke alarms are functioning properly.

“It doesn’t bear thinking what the consequences could be if we let this slide. The ultimate end goal is to make sure every single New Zealand home has working smoke alarms.”

The TVCs are running on TVNZ, MW, Prime and SKY until late January 2016.

The key aspect of the strategy is to avoid singling out specific groups or creating blame or scare mongering viewers. Instead, the aim is to show the positive behaviour of installing and checking smoke alarms and how this becomes something Kiwis do for their loved ones because they care for them.

Blair McLaren, national communications manager, New Zealand Fire Service led the team developing the new ads.

Says McLaren: “Most people accept that smoke alarms save lives, but frequently they don’t take that next step of buying, installing and regularly checking alarms. Our campaign aims to bridge that gap between awareness and action.”

He said the Fire Service recommended long-life photoelectric smoke alarms because they were more effective than ionisation alarms at detecting slow-smouldering as well as fast-flaming fires.

The campaign is called Your Only Voice because alarms are sleepers’ sole warning of danger at night.

CLIENT: New Zealand Fire Service