Precious Time
Providing North Western Melbourne a dedicated resource to access information on end of life choices
North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN) developed a dedicated website, Precious Time, which was the result of the Australian Government’s Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care program.
This program is a nationwide initiative that helps PHN’s to co-design culturally safe and appropriate palliative care options.
Precious Time provides expert advice on how to talk about dying, how to live fully supported and with dignity, how to sort out legal and financial issues, and many other issues. The information, resources and advice about end of life choices helps to promote agency and empowerment over the end of life experience.
NWMPHN partnered with Icon to plan and implement a communications program to promote the website, raise awareness and drive usage among key audiences and stakeholders. The project delivered a campaign platform, as well as a digital marketing campaign, which provided support and advice to enable people to access the right services as and when they needed.
Background
Talking about death is something people in Australia are reluctant to do. The reasons for this are multifaceted and intersect with social, cultural, religious, secular beliefs and modern day medical narratives all contributing to the issue. A recent study demonstrated that eight in 10 Australians think it’s important to talk about their end-of life care wishes, but still only one in four have actually had the conversation (PCA study, 2019).
The result is that the people who are most in need of these conversations and advice are left ill equipped to talk constructively about the subject even when they feel it is the right thing to do. Precious Time looks to build capability with its constituents and health professionals to have these conversations.
Challenge
Our overarching platform needed to break down fear and stigma around conversations about death and end-of life care and provide clear emotional benefits for doing so. The insights used to help shape our strategic communications highlighted the challenges at hand:
A conversation around death and end-of-life care takes courage. Whether you are the person who is in need of end-of-life care, you are part of their support network or even a health professional the communications should reinforce the fact that seeking information and advice around palliative care is a demonstration of love and to love takes courage.
To die is to be human. Our challenge was to break down stigma around talking about death and build capability to do so.
The earlier you have the conversation about end-of-life care the easier it will be. The communications should encourage early discussions about end-of-life care, which will ultimately improve satisfaction with end-of life care and facilitate better medical, spiritual and emotional outcomes.
Solution
Precious Time is a practical information resource, but we needed to make the brand relatable to connect deeply with a highly vulnerable and emotional audience.
Icon developed the positioning statement ‘live every moment’ and supporting narrative to inform the campaign’s creative platform. The narrative broke down fear and stigma around conversations about death and end-of life care and acknowledged there’s no simple, one-size-fits-all answer.
What Precious Time can do however, is offer care and support to help audiences plan and prepare. So they can live every moment, and help themselves, and their loved ones, make the most of their precious time.
The visual identity was guided by the NWMPHN brand and utilised imagery which showed family and friend units, supporting someone who is facing end of life. The identity delivers with an approachable, sensitive tone.
Results
Icon ran a demographic and geo-targeted 3-month digital campaign that drove local community awareness of the Precious Time website. The campaign was measured through page clicks to the website, with search and social activity.
Search activity improved month-of-month with a total of 2,500 clicks to the website, while social activity achieved over 6,000 landing page views. The activity also resulted in people clicking ‘save for later’ and ‘share this service’ button, enabling people to access the right services as and when they needed.
Services
Campaign strategy
Campaign visual identity
Graphic design
Collateral delivery
Media and campaign management
The website can be viewed at precioustime.org.au.
