The NZ government successfully targeted Kiwis attending summer music festivals - not with a boring government announcement, but with an entertaining idea designed to reverse their complacent attitude towards the ongoing threat of Covid-19.

Harnessing the nation's love of Health official Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, we partnered with a DJ to produce an original dubstep PSA & music video that played on screens at NZ’s biggest festivals. We creatively repositioned the government as a health brand, turning their health and safety content into festival culture, and creating an entertaining moment that 100,000 kiwis sung and danced to.

New Zealand had successfully eliminated Covid-19, and the country was heading into summer virus-free – with large gatherings such as music festivals going ahead. However, too many Kiwis were adopting a complacent attitude towards health & safety, unaware of the threat that the global pandemic still posed.

Our objective was to target the most complacent NZers; young people attending large music festivals. A generation less likely to follow instruction, and more likely to be the drivers of superspreader events. Our message was to ask them to wash & sanitise their hands, scan QR codes at events, and turn on their bluetooth enabled NZ Covid tracer app. The problem was, our audience was there for a good time, not for a boring government announcement. That’s why the solution had to be more than a message, but a memorable festival moment that showed the government truly cared about their health.

The Public Service Banger - the world's most unconventional Covid-19 PSA.

We collaborated with a local DJ, MACSEN, to produce a dubstep Covid-19 Public Service Announcement & music video that played at NZ’s biggest festivals.

The track features ‘national treasure’ and ‘influencer’ NZ Director-General of Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, telling festival-goers to wash & sanitise their hands, and use their bluetooth enabled NZ Covid-Tracer app. Delivering a serious message of national safety in the most unconventional way possible. The experience was so engaging the entire crowd sang and danced and shared it.

We set out to target those with the biggest risk of resurgence; the nation’s festival-attending youth. Our approach was one that most governing bodies would never even consider, by aligning with a powerful and relevant element of subculture – music. There was no point pretending that we weren’t the government. But luckily, we had one special weapon in our armoury, who we knew could connect with this audience – Dr Ashley Bloomfield. Due to his iconic status, universal liking and national respect, it became clear he should be the second strategic ingredient alongside music, in connecting with this hard to impress audience. The final strategic consideration was the fact that because this was taxpayer-funded, we had no media budget to gain reach. Whatever we created had to be so impactful that our target audience would spread the message for us, and be the drivers of behaviour change.

Ashley Bloomfield's PSA played between sets, projected onto festival screens, turning each stage into an influential media channel, and our film into an experience that targeted the most complacent New Zealanders, at the very moment they needed to hear our message of safety. It was launched at NZ's biggest New Year’s festival; Rhythm and Vines, and has now been played over 100 times at festivals and events.

The PSA helped us cut through the complacent attitude held by thousands of young NZ festival-goers, and delivered a message of safety in an unforgettable way.

Since the PSA first aired at festivals, there has been a 30% growth in QR codes scanned and a 195% increase in use of Bluetooth Covid-19 tracing.

Organic PR generated off the back of the PSA had 2,300,000 views, created 47,000,000 organic impressions, and was heralded on the New York Times, as well as the Guardian as an example of New Zealand’s world-leading Covid-19 communication response. The NZ Government invested $40,000 NZD into the campaign, their ROI was 0.12c for every kiwi who danced, 0.02c for every view and 0.08c for every opportunity to see. 1 in 4 Kiwi millennials danced to an ad, from a government, encouraging young people to wash their hands.