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Digital advertising does work!

by / / Published in Digital, Government

Having spent something like ten years now working on advertising campaigns for Government departments, everything from drink driving to tourism and recruitment to tenders, it seems that the most common question I get asked nowadays, often sitting precariously on a stage in front of an expectant audience, is something like “what’s Government doing with digital?”

Well the short answer is that many Government departments are doing great things with “digital”. (the long answer is of course “it depends what you mean by Government“), but I digress. The NSW Rural Fire Service tweet updated of fire information live to every journalist in the State. Ad campaigns like Pretty Shady get a million views on You Tube and then of course there’s always “Dumb Ways to Die”.

Unlike too many people in the so called “digital” industry, many of the best Government comms departments aren’t wasting time on abstract debate. They’re busy working out the best way to get their message to their audience. Unlike 20 years ago, they’ve got a range of media channels to consider, most of which are a fraction of the cost of what they used to be and the ability to tightly target the specific audience they are interested in.

As a result we see “digital” deployed all over the place, especially when the target audience is under 25. It was SEVEN YEARS AGO that my team took recruitment ads out of the papers. Trust me, the “Is Government using digital” argument is dead in the water.

But if anyone wants empirical proof, this is it. This new campaign for the Melanoma Patients of Australia is up there with “Drink Drive, Bloody Idiot” and “Pinkie” as one of the best behavioural campaigns ever. And it’s digital. It needs no explanation. Just watch it and feel the hairs stand up on your neck. Breathtakingly brilliant work from GPYR.

Watch it here.

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