Every year thousands of Australian homes are lost or damaged to fires, floods and storms. And every year, first responders risk their lives trying to protect them. This became apparent during the 2020 bushfires, where 3500 families lost their homes and 33 people were tragically killed.

Though it’s impossible to prevent natural disasters happening, being prepared can save homes and protect lives.

According to research, most house fires can be prevented with a fire blanket, but less than 15% of homes own one.

While 85% of homes lost to bushfires are from embers igniting uncleared debris in gutters.

As Australia’s leading insurer, NRMA helps rebuild homes and lives after disasters. But in 2020, they wanted to help before. Their brief was: How do we get Australians to make their homes safer?

Short term objectives: get Australians to perform household safety tasks.

Long term objectives: increase market share, decrease insurance claims.

Red Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Black Saturday. When there’s a day of natural disaster in Australia, the media gives it a name. To counter this, we created a day of prevention: First Saturday for First Responders.

First Saturday is a behaviour-change initiative that makes home preparation part of the national calendar. Working with emergency services (RFS, SES, Red Cross), weather and claims data were analysed to determine essential tasks to make homes safer.

To encourage participation, they were spread over a year - one task assigned to the First Saturday of every month, and integrated into calendars.

3 weeks prior to a First Saturday, an emotional campaign told the nation why they should help. One week out, targeted content showed them how. This was repeated monthly, for an entire year.

By turning household chores into help for first responders, we didn’t just protect Australia’s homes, we protected its heroes too.

Our strategy was to reframe safety chores as an act of social responsibility; help.

We used the behavioural change model of BJ Fogg, which insists that three levers have to be pulled to drive change: motivation to act, ability to act and prompts to act.

To encourage all Australians to make their homes safer, our strategy was to get them to think about the people who’d benefit from it other than themselves: the first responders who risk their lives every time they’re called to an emergency.

By shifting from preparation to preservation, it allowed us to reframe safety tasks as more than more than chores. A perfect expression of NRMA Insurance’s brand purpose of ‘helping make your world a safer place’.

Then, we made participation easy by pushing one simple task, once a month. While each act seemed small, over a year they’d make a significant difference.

Launched August 2020, First Saturday runs over 12-months, with a monthly media plan implemented in 3-week phases:

Three weeks prior to a First Saturday, the emotional connection to first responders with our brand campaign consisting of TV, newspaper wraps, radio and out-of-home. The aim was to tell Australia WHY they should help.

A week prior to the initial First Saturday, we ran targeted comms, consisting of animated films, newspaper, social & radio. The purpose of this content is to show Australia HOW they can help, educating people on how to do the tasks.

Finally, the day after each First Saturday, we consolidated the behaviour of weaving the tasks into culture by partnering with popular radio hosts to recap the day through anecdotes, live reads and social content.

While the First Saturday campaign continues to run in market as an on-going platform, current results have identified:

Behaviour change has been seen with each monthly First Saturday task since launching:

28% of people reported checking the condition of fire blankets and fire extinguishers at home.

47% of people surveyed after having seen First Saturday comms proceeded to clear branches and flammable debris.

35% of people surveyed after having seen First Saturday comms made their home storm safe by cleaning gutters and downpipes.

32% of people surveyed after having seen First Saturday comms said they would clean their BBQs, range hoods and exhaust fans.

Additionally, the First Saturday platform continues to positively impact business results:

2.3% uplift in Market share within NSW across home insurance products.

1.3% uplift in Renewals and continues to rise.