This campaign epitomises integrated. We used a variety of online and offline media to communicate our message. Everything was connected from start to finish - with the 'domino effect' being a consistent theme throughout.

Specific outputs (eight in total):

Life-size domino run of real Aged Care beds - which was filmed and photographed.

Assets were created and used across: TVC, online video, billboards, street posters, digital banners and social media.

Radio

Direct mail - packs of dominoes sent to key media.

These packs drove a robust PR campaign.

All driving to campaign website featuring education and user-generated content.

By 2032, New Zealand will be home to 84,000 more 80+ years old. But instead of creating more Aged Care beds to meet this demand, we're losing them. Due to years of chronic underfunding, Aged Care facilities are closing down in alarming numbers and we're short 1,200 nurses, who get better pay and conditions overseas.

New Zealand is in the midst of an Aged Care Crisis. Plain and simple.

Year after year, calls for a more sustainable funding model had fallen on deaf ears. So the Aged Care Association briefed us on new strategy - public awareness. It's easy for politicians to ignore non-profits like us. It's far less easy for them to ignore a groundswell of public pressure.

So while our ultimate objective was a more sustainable funding model for the sector, a more immediate objective was to spread awareness of the Aged Care Crisis at hand.

NURSES

As recently as last year, the sector was short over 1,200 aged care nurses. It also had a nurse vacancy rate of 20% and an annual turnover of 50%. When aged care facilities don’t have enough nurses, they’re left with two options. The first is for existing nurses to cover the extra hours. No one wants staff who are overworked, therefore the second option is often taken: closing beds.

BEDS

Over the next decade or so, we’ll have 84,000 more Kiwis aged 80+. The number of beds needed to meet that demand is around 54,000. Right now, we have 40,800. To grow by 13,200 in that time, we’ll need around 1,400 extra beds per year – which corresponds to 10 facilities. Under the current funding model, this simply will not happen. In fact, as of today, the supply of beds is declining, falling by 146 beds last year alone.

FUNDING

Each year a ‘cost pressure test’ calculation is done, which works out the minimum funding the Aged Care sector needs to operate. This is routinely ignored. Instead, funding is allocated on a % increase based on current budget allowances. This has resulted in underfunding and the compounding issue at hand.

GOVERNMENT

The last thing worth noting is that New Zealand was approaching an annual election. So 'optics' and the desire amongst political parties to be seen doing the right thing was at an all time high.

Our brief was to generate as much awareness about the Aged Care Crisis as possible. But how do you get people to care about something that only affects our elderly? By making them realise this DOESN'T just affect our elderly.

We needed to educate the country that losing aged care beds will affect EVERYONE - from our doctors and nurses working 24-hour shifts, to our 'sandwich generation' who will have to care for both their kids and their parents in one house, to our most vulnerable Kiwis who'll face unbearable wait times at public hospitals (because when Aged Care facilities close down, our elderly have no where else to go so end up blocking beds in hospitals.)

Our creative idea: The Domino Effect. A domino run made up of Aged Care beds served as a visual metaphor for the impact the Aged Crisis will have on everyone.

Our audience was two-fold. Ultimately it's politicians and decision makers. But after being routinely ignored, we changed tact and decided to reach them through the very people who will decide their fate in a a few week's time - the NZ public. Strategically we identified that public pressure around election time was our best chance of eliciting action.

So alongside our usual government interactions, we ran a nationwide campaign, up-weighted in Wellington where politicians work. Realising that what's being communicated to them internally is now also being communicated to the public makes it harder to ignore.

A third audience was journalists and media, who would help spread the message. They were targeted primarily through our DM pack of dominoes.

Another strategic insight was that unfortunately people only really care about something once it affects them. So we needed to educate people that the crisis will affect us all.

Once we had the Domino Effect idea, we needed to decide whether we'd achieve this physically or digitally. We agreed that to rouse maximum emotion, capturing a real-life domino run using real beds would give the work maximum impact. We also wanted to honour the sector and be authentic, so we used real beds from a struggling Aged Care facility.

Once the run was created, the falling beds were captured in film and photography. These visual assets then formed the basis of our nationwide advertising campaign, including TV, online video, OOH, radio, digital and social.

Specially made domino packs also featured our imagery and were sent out to journalists and key media reporters. Our messaged compelled them enough to earn 46 pieces of media, including 15-min slots on prime time TV shows, news coverage, radio interviews, multiple write ups and more.

REACH = 3.7 million New Zealanders (that represents 74% of the entire country).

IMPRESSIONS = 14.1 million. (Total number of exposure opportunities).

IMPACT = After years of being routinely ignored, the Aged Care sector was the focus of FIVE policy commitments by the incoming New Zealand government. One of which specifically committed to investigating the funding model - which is the very cause of our impending crisis.

We cannot overstate how significant this is for the sector and the raft of passionate people and organisations that have been pushing for a result like this year after year.