Royal Life Saving WA has brought back its highly successful ‘Mermates’ platform, launching a refreshed water safety behaviour change campaign that targets a new generation of water-goers.
Developed by 303 MullenLowe, the new ‘Be a Mermate’ campaign and its “give risky behaviour a splash in the face” tagline delivers an evolved safety message that goes beyond the original campaign’s focus on alcohol and water safety. First seen in 2019 and developed by 303 MullenLowe, it resulted in positive shifts in the attitudes of 15–24-year-olds towards safe drinking behaviour around water.
With a new generation of water goers, awareness on a broader range of water safety issues was required, according to Royal Life Saving WA’s Blanche Marchant.
“Top factors now associated with fatal drownings range from environmental, location, inexperience, prior injury, and swimming ability, with drug/alcohol use lower than previous years,” she said. “A new safety awareness message was needed to focus on these risky behaviours. This evolved approach will send a clear message to young people, and their mates, that keeping each other safe is the best way to avoid water related tragedy this summer.”
Using several ‘Mermates’ basking on the rocks was a deliberate creative choice to bring the Mermates to life in a new and relevant way, while encouraging the young and largely male target audience to think about their own friends in these situations. Working hand in hand with Royal Life Saving WA allowed us to develop an approach wrapped in absurd humour that resonates with this hard-to-reach audience - one that doesn’t want a finger wagged in their face.
Ellysia Burton, Copywriter, 303 MullenLowe Perth
“It is incredible to see an organisation like Royal Life Saving WA commit itself to tackling positive change and the serious nature of this message through humour. We’re proud to have been part of this process with them,” Burton said.
Researching the attitudes and preferences of the 18-24-year old, male target audience showed the strong connection between unsafe practises and peer pressure, so we knew we had to play into the influence young people have as a collective rather than as individuals. That’s why we moved from having one Mermate deliver a safety message to multiple, young Mermates to create a more resounding message. It reinforces that your mates have the got best chance of giving you a reality check.
Devon Jackson, Senior Business Manager, 303 MullenLowe Perth
303 MullenLowe’s remit included strategy, creative concepting and production with media undertaken by Mediahub. ‘Be a Mermate’ is now live across Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Programmatic Video, and GumGum.
Mediahub Perth media manager Meg Handley said, “We’ve loved working with Royal Life Saving WA and 303 MullenLowe on the Mermates campaign over the past six years. This demographic can be tricky to pin down with paid media, however, it’s a challenge we’ve relished tackling each year. The media strategy of this campaign has focused on reaching the audience in contextually relevant placements, using mostly short format video to capture attention. This new iteration of the Mermates creative lends itself beautifully to this strategy.”
A charity focused on empowering the community to be safe in and around water and leading efforts to reduce the impact of drowning, Royal Life Saving WA has partnered with 303 MullenLowe for the past 15+ years.
