Pulse Collective’s Lauren Fried says Census 2016 campaign was ‘lazy + error filled’ on ABC’s Gruen

The government’s 2016 Census campaign was lazy, uninspiring and filled with errors, according to marketing expert and Pulse Collective founder and managing director Lauren Fried.

Fried (left), who appeared on the ABC hit show Gruen last night, which looks at everything about advertising, examined the 2016 census ad campaign and the problems surrounding the execution of the data gathering exercise.

Dubbed #censusfail, the Gruen panel agreed the advertising campaign had little to do with Australians taking a pause, the campaign’s tagline, and should have been more about it going online. However, there was no mention of the online component until two thirds into the television advertisement.

It’s as if the government was still trying to justify why Australians should give out their information rather than telling us how to log online and do it, the panel concluded.

Says Fried: “This is a very lazy and uninspiring campaign. This was an opportunity to make Australia really optimistic about the future, to make them excited and not scared, and it’s not what happened.

“When you see the imagery in the ad, it’s so boring. It’s like McDonald’s showing you the transaction of paying for the burger or getting your ‘rego’ papers in the mail. Show me how I’m going to feel when I’ve eaten the burger or driving my car down the street with people looking at me.”

The 2016 census was plagued with problems when its online platform was taken offline for more than 40 hours after being inundated with requests.

Says Fried: “Every single person that ever touched that campaign … should have been sitting in a room together – it’s one day, if anything was going to go wrong it was that one day. They should have had 50 different landing pages for the website in case it went down so it goes up quickly. This is basic 101 about how to talk to customers.”

Before Census even began there were questions about data safety and the government has since denied the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website was hacked or attacked and any data lost.

Fried said data is a very sensitive space and every day in the newspapers: “We are seeing at least one red flag about data protection. So it’s ludicrous to think this was well and truly not on their radar and a priority and a critical component of their campaign. Where it becomes a bit tricky is when the people you are handing your data over to you don’t trust. Government and businesses that normally we don’t trust are always on the defensive. They are not on the front foot when it comes to talking about data because they want to pretend the problem doesn’t exist.

“If you want to be a member of say Priceline you have signed that off and you know they have your data. In return you get discounts and stuff for free. With the government, because we haven’t agreed to it, that’s the problem.”

Meanwhile, the Census colour and branding was always orange but this year the government changed it to green.

Fried said businesses and brands don’t change their colours without good reason, and when they do it is based on a core value of the business. The ABS also announced they went green because it reinforced the digital and environmentally friendly approach.

Says Fried: “If you’re going to be true to that then every tactic, media, marketing has to go through that filter. The way they celebrated that was to light up buildings (in green) using electricity? It’s like let’s celebrate Earth Hour and turn all the lights on. It was just error after error.”