Trying to engage teenagers with just about anything is always a tough ask. But trying to engage them to learn about bushfire safety is almost impossible. The Country Fire Authority has spent more than 30 years running school programs, relying on A4 boards and whiteboard diagrams. So how do you find a new way to take this program and captivate their audience?
Given the intensity and complex nature of the information involved, we wanted to find ways to visually create bushfire scenarios where the user could control natural elements and see for themselves the results. We developed a tool that would help to captivate unengaged secondary school students about the dangers of bushfires. What we delivered was a revolutionary digital environment Bushfire Education Simulator which utilized gaming technology and animation to help illustrate how making informed, educated decisions can ultimately save lives.
The result of this campaign was truly phenomenal. We delivered the message to 500,000+ Victorians through the CFA website. Advertising click-through-rates 2.8 times higher than that of the industry benchmark. Advertising interaction increased 10 times from previous campaigns. And the fact that students have remained on the site for an average of 23 minutes per session with 47% repeat traffic shows that the ultimate goal of engagement has been achieved.
