The New Zealand Fire Service needed a way to get Pacific Island communities to install and check fire alarms. During research, Pacific Island people said the fear of their child being harmed or disfigured in a house fire was the most powerful motivation for them to install and check smoke alarms. With that insight in mind, we created a story based on a Pacific Island family that suffered the tragic event of a fire. This commercial follows the father as he prepares his scarred daughter for her first day back at school. He irons her uniform, makes her breakfast, combs her hair, and walks her to school. As he does this, we hear his inner monologue admit that after telling her that school would be like it was before the fire, he lied. As we all know, children, unbeknownst to them, can be extremely brutal. This commercial was created to coincide with children returning to school. It also focuses on the mind-set of the father as he struggles with the guilt, knowing very well that he could have prevented her injuries. This is a story that forced parents to ask themselves, ‘could you live with yourself?’

While targeting Pacific families, we also wanted to resonate with all parents. By showing the anguish of the father, we got New Zealand parents to put themselves in his shoes and feel his pain. For a parent, it’s universal.

At the same time we ran retail ads driving people into New Zealand’s largest retailer to get discounted smoke alarms. The TV commercials were aired before, during, and after programmes that had strong Pacific viewership e.g. Tagata Pacifika and sports like Rugby and Rugby League. They also aired in the early hours of the morning to target shift workers.

The response has been incredible. The ads have resulted in 89% prompted awareness, the highest ever recorded by NZ Fire Service. 60% of people also stated that they had changed their behaviour (regularly testing and checking their alarms) as a result of the ads. And during the promotional periods, sales for smoke alarms at The Warehouse increased by a phenomenal 2156%, yes 2156%.