Heart Foundation CMO: Last week was the most challenging of my career
Chris Taylor, the chief marketing officer of the Heart Foundation, has spoken out about the toll the Heartless Words campaign has taken, and said pressure from donors and other health groups ultimately led to its axing.
The campaign copped backlash for featuring a dying mother telling her child “every time I told you I loved you, I was lying”.
Speaking at Mumbrella360 on the charity’s previous, and wildly successful, Serial Killer campaign it executed in partnership with News Corp, Taylor said the charity’s numerous obstacles – apathy, inspiring donations, lack of awareness and just how preventable heart disease could be – meant it had to “bring back the fear of heart disease”.
Its campaigns need to put heart disease back on the agenda, and remind Australians it’s the number one killer, he said.
On its Serial Killer campaign, he said: “We needed a big idea, and we were very willing to take a risk to bring that to life. In fact, we wanted to shock Australia into action.”
He said the charity cannot afford to go “soft” on the issue, as it simply doesn’t cut through. The brand needs to take risks, and shock, surprise and scare people.
On the back of the success of Serial Killer, it went down the path of Heartless Words.
Heartless Words, however, which hit TV screens last week, did not go to plan.
“I talked about Serial Killer being one of the most exciting of my working career, and I think that the last week has probably been one of the most challenging,” he said, noting the campaign came from a place of good will, with the intent of making people use the new Medicare item number to get a heart health check.
“Now what has happened is that we’ve got a lot of feedback particularly from people who have lost someone, that they found the ad incredibly challenging, and a lot of that feedback came through social media. And through the week we had obviously defended the ad – the purpose and the intention of the ad was to do good – but also acknowledged that it may have hurt people along the way. And for that, we are profusely sorry. That was never the intention. The intention was to cut through,” he said.
Taylor was not the only one to suffer as a result of the campaign, with frontline staff struggling as result as well.
Taylor addressing the ‘elephant in the room’ at Mumbrella360
“We didn’t also appreciate the impact that it did have on our staff, because they are the front line, and they’re dealing with people everyday who have got heart disease. And as an organisation, whose purpose is to look after those people, they felt that it was very challenging,” he said.
Ultimately, despite testing the message in market and believing the ad would be effective, Taylor acknowledged the brand had to ditch the ad to protect its revenue base.
“Within an organisation like us, we’ve got very limited funds to get the message out there. And if we don’t spend that money in the most impactful way, we’re wasting our money, and we’re wasting the money of our generous donors,” he said.
“So we had made a decision as an organisation to continue along the lines of Serial Killer, and create a campaign that was impactful. But we have acknowledged and we have stopped the campaign due to a lot of the feedback that we got.
“An organisation like the Heart Foundation does rely on the goodwill of donors, but also the goodwill of other organisations within the health industry. And that pressure from those groups had led to the decision to stop the campaign.”
Despite the furore, Taylor said the brand will not be shying away from future hard-hitting campaigns in a bid to save lives.
“We’re not giving up, we’re continuing. You’ll see new campaigns and messaging out there very shortly,” he said.
Marketing academic Professor Mark Ritson praised Taylor’s bravery throughout the campaign’s ideation, execution and axing, and said it was a shame the campaign hadn’t stood the test of time on the airwaves.
“There’s a lesson here, right? Let’s take it away from heart disease for a second. Most marketers play it too safe. Most marketers don’t achieve salience. Most consumers never notice or digest the message, because we don’t push whatever the position might be far enough,” he said.
“If there’s one thing you see across successful campaigns, back to this bravery point, you have to push it up to the line, and maybe sometimes over the line – not intentionally, but the attention and effectiveness depends upon it. And I think for me it’s one of the great shames, if this is one of the great campaigns of the last five or 10 years in Australia, one of the great disappointments, though it’s understandable, is it’s been pulled.”
Ritson concluded: “We’re not talking about something that can’t be prevented in the vast majority of cases [heart disease]. I’m not an ethicist. I have no idea about healthcare, but from a marketing point of view, I think this is a shame, because it was continuing a very successful campaign to the next stage.”
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I was one of the doubters before yesterday. But then I heard Chris at mumbrella 360 and it all made sense. People are all too complacent about their health and long term diseases so apathy around messaging is rife. Bravery is too rare these days, especially in nfp. Heart foundation took risks, some paid off, some didn’t. Thankfully heartless words already saved lives, so it wasn’t a wasted exercise. Chris you turned me around, and I wasn’t expecting to, thank you for that experience.
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Agree with Mark Ritson on this and commend Chris Taylor for his courage, followed by his honesty
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I believe that the chief marketing officer’s intentions were strictly honourable, and I have no doubt that the intent was heartfelt, however, there is an inherent problem with attempting to force a heartfelt desire upon an audience, via the medium of theatrical presentation.
[quote] “He said the charity cannot afford to go “soft” on the issue, as it simply doesn’t cut through. The brand needs to take risks, and shock, surprise and scare people.” [unquote]
Going “soft” on the issue is not even an option, so why use it as a comparison?
To get to the cutting edge of theatre, one must always take risks, and to shock and surprise is part of the essential stock in trade, but to “scare” is something very different indeed. Theatre uses mystery and suspense to raise tension, the aim is to bring the audience to a level of tension that is only just bearable, but there must always be a built-in relief, and this requires very careful and cautious planning.
The golden rule of theatre is “Never inflict pain upon an audience”
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Interesting perspective and it feels like you’re right in this scenario. However I think it’s commendable to see a brand attempt an unconventional narrative. After all that’s when creativity is often at its best.
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To attempt an unconventional narrative is one approach to the cutting edge I have mentioned, and I agree, this is certainly where creativity is at its best. The cutting edge presents a very fine line, however, and a deal of skill and caution is required to avoid disaster.
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I saw the ad and thought it was for a smoking ad, which I think would have been brilliant because people know how bad smoking is and yet they continue to smoke. To be honest I lost the message of who it was for in the end, but I thought the creative behind it was very clever.
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I’m the Comms Manager at a small health-related NFP. As part of an awareness campaign recently I made a mis-step where I put out an infographic that described (in graphic detail) how a certain condition affected the people who have it. The reaction our organisation got from some of our members was fierce, and after a lot of feedback the graphic was changed.
Ours was a much smaller scale example than Heartless Words, but the lesson I learned from it is to ensure that people with the condition are involved in co-creation of important messaging. Seems obvious in hindsight but then again hindsight is 20-20. We’re putting steps into place to make sure that happens at our NFP from now on.
If this principle had been the case with Heartless Words, I wonder whether it would have ever seen the light of day.
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I was also a doubter going into this. I saw the ad and, as a father, it made me feel ill. Truth be told, I didn’t even finish the ad.
I am a 30+ year smoker and after hearing Mr Taylor speak, I realise now my discomfort was a reflection of my own choices and accountability. Immediately after the presentation, I went online and booked a visit to my doctor. I’ve never done such a 180 spin on a piece of work. Mr Taylor – I commend you on your honesty and bravery. Heartless Words is a message that simply must get out to help more people like myself and many others. It’s time we took responsibility for our own ‘heartless words’ and ‘heartless actions’.
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To be frank I’m surprised at the editorial license taken in this article. Having been at the seminar, I’m wondering why you chose to focus entirely on the hardships, outrage and ultimate removal of the campaign, rather than the broader effect it was having? Why choose to omit the story of the woman who called and said that after watching the ad, got a check up and discovered a 93% heart blockage? I lost someone to preventable chronic rheumatic heart disease 6 years ago. To myself and my colleagues, and as Mark Ritson et al pointed out, this wasn’t a story of going too far. This was a story of being forced to capitulate to the outraged minority and the lives that didn’t get saved in the process. I’m quite shocked that Mumbrella – the very organisation that hosted Chris Taylor – hasn’t conveyed his story evenly!
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This was by far the talk of the day. Gutsy, real, honest. Well done Chris Taylor. The work you are doing is inspirational and meaningful and is clearly saving lives. That’s all that matters.
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Thanks for raising the point, HWS. We have written a number of pieces about the campaign over the last few weeks, and covered many of those aspects.
The limitations of a 500 or so word news story means that we can’t cover every aspect of the perhaps 6,000 or so words spoken during a 45 minutes presentation. However, I do feel that it captures the compelling case Chris made (I was in the room myself) for the strategy behind the message.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
“We didn’t also appreciate the impact that it did have on our staff, because they are the front line, and they’re dealing with people everyday who have got heart disease. And as an organisation, whose purpose is to look after those people, they felt that it was very challenging,”
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What a pathetic mea culpa.
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All a bit late.
Damage to brand done.
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