Carers Victoria
Public awareness and support campaign
The unsung heroes
There are 726,600 carers in Victoria, and more than 2.7 million across Australia. Many of these people are caring for someone close to them – unpaid, and with little recognition or praise received. They do it out of love. And their truly incredible care makes the world a better place.
In 2019, Icon Agency was engaged by Carers Victoria to develop an integrated creative communications campaign that would raise awareness of the incredible work unpaid carers do, and help Carers Victoria continue to support them.
Providing Vital support
Carers Victoria, part of the Carers Australia network, is dedicated to supporting and advocating for unpaid carers while raising awareness of their impact on society. Pressure on funding and a competitive landscape meant Carers Victoria needs to clearly define both its value and offering to the Victorian community.
In an effort to raise their profile and gain broader community support, Icon Agency was engaged to develop an extensive Awareness Campaign. The purpose of this campaign would be to raise awareness of who unpaid carers are, and the good they do in their communities, as well as to encourage Victorians to pledge their support to Carers Victoria through an online portal.
To inform our campaign and gain valuable insights into Carers Victoria and the landscape, we undertook a ‘Top to Bottom’ strategic review of their internal, external and media communications. This included a competitor review, share of voice analysis and discovery of their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Crowded space and similar messages
Carers Victoria operates in a crowded market, with many competitors offering similar services. While their broad targeting of all unpaid carers in Victoria has helped establish them as the peak body in unpaid care, it presented a unique challenge.
Many competitors offered specialised services and support, targeting specific types of care, making them more appealing to that type of carer. In the process, they unfairly portrayed Carers Victoria as being unable to provide the same level of specialised support.
We recognised the need to cut through in this crowded market. And the homogenous nature of much of the market’s messaging presented an opportunity to differentiate ourselves.
Carers Victoria is the only organisation dedicated to all carers. By playing to these unique strengths, as well as the incredible work they do, we were able to find a unique creative opportunity.
Another core challenge facing us was the recognition of what an unpaid carer is in the community. Despite the selfless effort they put in, many unpaid carers don’t hold themselves in the same high esteem that we do.
We want to help both these unpaid carers (and indeed all Victorians) recognise that the work these people do is selfless and vital, and deserving of our formal support.
Recognising truly incredible care
Through our research and experience, we understood that the organisation pushing for unpaid carers’ rights, and leading the conversation around what a carer is, would quickly be recognised as the authority on the matter. And we would then be ideally positioned to carry the conversation into the future.
Drawing on the insights gained through extensive interviewing, researching and workshopping, we developed a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy that would inform messaging objectives. Integral to this was an ‘always-on’ PR approach, that would utilise ongoing content production to gain greater share of voice and help to encourage Victorians to pledge their support.
Under the creative platform ‘Truly Incredible Care’, we developed a range of collateral that would help to reinforce messaging and visualise the incredible work unpaid carers do. Central to this was a series of films exploring the lives of real carers, and the genuine love they have for the parents, children, partners and siblings they care for. These real-life heroes featured were central to the “Truly Incredible Care’ story.
With the state under lockdown due to COVID-19, we directed our focus towards an extensive digital marketing campaign that would share the stories of truly incredible carers while inviting Victorians to pledge their support to Carers Victoria (and, by extension, carers) through a dedicated online portal. In doing so, they could help this important organisation continue to care for carers.
Services included:
Creative ideation and direction
Graphic design
Video production
Photography
Social media
Public relations and communications
Research and workshops
Digital marketing
Advertising
