Wearing a lifejacket at all times is Maritime New Zealand’s primary focus for communications activity directed to recreational boaties.

With a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude, Kiwi boaties needed to be convinced to wear lifejackets whenever they went out, even though they didn’t legally have to and previous campaigns hadn’t convinced them. This audience saw lifejackets as constricting their freedom on the water and only being necessary for women, children and “bad” boaties.

The strategy separated the behaviour from the person: it’s not about how good you are; lifejackets only work if you wear them. This was brought to life through heroic ‘80s buddy cops and a humorous bulletproof vest metaphor. An integrated media strategy was used that followed the boaties from their homes to out on the water, using a range of environmental and digital media to encourage them to put their lifejackets on.

Huge engagement was achieved across a digital media layer – including a 440% increase in YouTube views of the new TVC and beating the 12-month target for app usage by 80% within the first two months of release.

Even better, it made a real difference to saving lives on the water. With 31% less media spend than the previous year, an 25% increase in boaties wearing lifejackets every time they went on the water was achieved.