Bluey’s mum and Play School star front Emergency Management Vic summer campaign
With experts predicting an increased risk of fires and heat waves this summer thanks to El Niño, Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) has teamed up with Think HQ, Playschool’s Justine Clarke and Melanie Zanetti, voice of Bluey’s mum Chilli, to make Victorians aware of how to handle emergency situations.
The new campaign leverages Australia’s existing Australian Warning System (AWS) to increase community awareness of VicEmergency channels – a centralised source to help communities in emergencies.
Other assets:
Georgia and the girls great weekend adventure
A camping trip takes a turn
“We have really enjoyed working on the project and the chance to bring the warnings system to life through creative storytelling,” said Lucy Bell, manager, operational communications at EMV.
“The execution is really engaging, easy to understand and strikes the right balance between informative with a touch of humour. As we head into summer, we know how useful the materials will be for community members to understand our warnings and what they need to do during an emergency.”
The campaign was developed around the central theme of storytelling, with Playschool’s storyteller and presenter Justine Clarke and Bluey’s Melanie Zanetti, the voice of Australia’s favourite animated mum Chilli, at the forefront.
Clarke, Zanetti and AWS’ suite of animated ambassadors take the audience on a journey to learn about VicEmergency – sharing stories aimed to appeal at both kids and adults (who are young at heart!).
Rob Barnett, Think HQ’s ECD, added: “After spending my summers over the past 10 years in a fire prone area in country Victoria, I have firsthand experience in the risks we face every year.
“We had a lot of fun collaborating with Justine (Clarke) and Melanie (Zanetti) on set as well as working closely with Think HQ’s team of illustrators and animators to bring the characters and stories to life.”
Every department within Think HQ was involved, including CultureVerse, its multicultural communications arm.
Lauren Brown, copywriter at Think HQ, concluded: “Weather-based emergencies can be such scary and difficult things to navigate, which unfortunately many of us know from experience.
“It was incredibly fun bringing all elements of this campaign to life. I genuinely hope these stories help people feel informed about how to stay as safe as possible.”
The campaign is live across video, printed picture books, audio books, radio and social, with a suite of in-language assets across five different languages.
Credits:
Emergency Management Victoria
Lucy Bell – Manager, operational communications
Reegan Key – Manager, operational communications
Taylor Woodward – Senior officer, public information
Georgia Parker – Acting team leader, public information
Think HQ
Founder/managing director: Jen Sharpe
Chief creative officer: Andy Lima
Executive creative director: Rob Barnett
Copywriter: Lauren Brown
Senior art director: Nathan Barrow
Illustrators: Tina Tran, Camilo Suarez
Creative operations manager: Rebecca Eastman
Producer: David O’Connor
Offline & online editor, colourist: Matt Fregnan
Offline editor: Nic Song
Animator: Edward Rocha
Motion designer: Roberta Ramalho & Xiaohong Jiang
Audio producer: Adam Dixon-Galea
Chief technology officer: Olivier Laude
Developer programmer: Thuan Le
Digital project manager: Brogan Palmer
Senior account director: Torey Fitton
Account manager: Tayla Lawson
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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