Royal Life Saving Australia urges families to keep watch no matter what via 303 MullenLowe Sydney

To raise awareness of preventable backyard drowning incidents for Royal Life Saving Australia, 303 MullenLowe has partnered with Matt Preston to host a mock internet content program ‘The World’s Most Costly.’

It opens innocently with Preston suited and smiling, but goes on to reveal a shocking statistic: 14 children drowned in Australian backyard swimming pools last summer – most often due to everyday distractions like going inside to check the oven, answering the door, taking a phone call or simply going to the bathroom.

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Says Richard Morgan, ECD, 303 MullenLowe: “Given the importance of the message, we knew we needed to take a multi-disciplinary approach to this campaign. The ‘most costly’ meme is a classic piece of clickable internet content, in this case made highly relevant by landing what the true cost of a seemingly simple item could be. Partnering with Matt Preston, a father himself and one of Australia’s most famous chefs and television personalities to present our message, means we can grab people’s attention as they scroll through their news feeds, before educating them in a different way.”

According to the Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report 2016, 83 children died in private swimming pools between 2002-2015, with children under five years old most at risk.

Royal Life Saving NSW operations manager Michael Ilinsky said the recent tragedies resulting in a 22 month-old drowning and a two year old lifted to hospital, have again highlighted the urgency of this message.

Says Ilinsky: “A supervised child doesn’t drown. It’s common at this time of year to have family gatherings and backyard BBQs with friends, which brings with it all sorts of distractions. We hope this campaign will make parents aware it’s these seemingly innocuous distractions that have led to so many deaths in the last decade, meaning active supervision is critical and 303 MullenLowe’s campaign highlights this very effectively.”

NSW minister for local government Paul Toole said the Government had recently more than doubled its financial support for Royal Life Saving’s campaign. This summer’s campaign will work in collaboration with the NSW Ambulance and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Their stories are told in a series of interviews that can be watched here.

303 MullenLowe’s in-house PR division has been working closely with Royal Life Saving Australia to maximise the campaign’s reach through parenting media, bloggers and key influencer outreach, while the agency’s media buying and social strategy teams are driving exposure through paid media placements and social platforms.

The World’s Most Costly campaign is part of Royal Life Saving’s Keep Watch program.

Campaign: #KeepWatch

Sound Engineer: Barry Stewart, Sound Reservoir