SUB CATEGORY :

PUBLIC SERVICES & CAUSE APPEALS

COMPANY ENTERING :

DENTSU CREATIVE, SYDNEY

TITLE :

SECOND CHANCE CHAMPIONS

BRAND :

TRANSPLANT AUSTRALIA

ADVERTISER :

TRANSPLANT AUSTRALIA

AGENCY :

DENTSU CREATIVE, MELBOURNE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER :

KIRSTY MUDDLE

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER :

MANDIE VAN DER MERWE/AVISH GORDHAN

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR :

SARAH MCGREGOR

CREATIVE DIRECTOR :

LIAM BAGNALL/TRENT HENDRICK

ART DIRECTOR :

KEAN SZCZUR

COPYWRITER :

MONIQUE HORSLEY

AGENCY PRODUCER :

ROZ SCRIMSHAW/CRAIG SLOANE

DESIGNER :

MIKE PAPA

RETOUCHER :

ROSS GODDARD

CLIENT SERVICE DIRECTOR :

GUY LOVELL

STRATEGIC PLANNING DIRECTOR :

WILL GILES

STRATEGIC PLANNER :

GRAHAM ALVAREZ/PAUL ISBELL

PR DIRECTOR :

TIFFANY SIMON

FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY :

DENTSU CREATIVE, MELBOURNE

DIRECTOR :

LIAM BAGNALL

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY :

TIM FITZGERALD

PHOTOGRAPHER :

DANIEL MAZZARELLA

FILM PRODUCER :

SANDY MADDEN

SOUND RECORDIST :

JASON NORTH

POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY :

DENTSU CREATIVE, MELBOURNE

EDITOR :

CLAIRE CONWAY

COLORIST :

TIM EGAN

SOUND PRODUCTION COMPANY :

SMITH & WESTERN SOUND, MELBOURNE/
FINAL SOUND, MELBOURNE

MIXER :

FINAL SOUND

MUSIC COMPOSER :

SMITH & WESTERN

PHOTOGRAPHER :

DANIEL MAZZARELA

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY :

Organ donation saves lives - one donor can save 10 others, as well as their respective families.
However, as it stands, there are over 1,800 Australians waitlisted for a transplant, and 13,000 more on dialysis. With 1 in 3 Aussies registered to be an organ donor, these numbers should quickly fall to 0, right? Sadly, that’s not the case.
In reality, very few people who die each year become eligible for organ donation and in over half the cases, a potential donor’s wishes are overturned by their next of kin. Why? Because they never discussed their loved one’s decision.
This lack of conversation, combined with misconceptions about the procedure, was preventing thousands from receiving a lifesaving transplant.
Our mission was clear: we needed to spark a national conversation around the desperate need for more donor registrations and conversations with families to make their wishes known.
Using the nation’s favourite topic (sport), we launched a documentary film with Transplant Australia about an inspiring, little-known event called the World Transplant Games.
Filmed in Perth last year, Second Chance Champions features athletes from across the globe – all with one thing in common: they’d either given or received an organ transplant.
We knew this event would make for compelling content, but to make it newsworthy we added a ‘world first’ twist - we gave athletes the opportunity to split their winning medals with the donors and donor families who made their success possible.
By finding a range of donor and donor family case studies who were willing to share their stories of triumph, generosity and gratitude, we secured widespread national media interest in the documentary and in the stories of the people who have been saved by organ donation.
In doing so, we realised remarkable success with a 60% uplift in organ donation.

CREATIVITY/IDEA/INSIGHT :

Given 4 in 5 Australians support organ donation and the registration process takes just 60 seconds, it’s a wonder why the demand for more transplants isn’t being met, year after year.
But for an organ donation to occur, two big hurdles must be jumped.
The first is one of circumstance. Of the 170,000 Australians who pass away each year, only around 1,400 meet the criteria for donation.
The second hurdle is one of consent. Only 701 of 1,300 requests for donation in 2022 were approved by the potential donor’s next of kin. That’s a 54% consent rate. Meaning 599 eligible donors missed out on giving the gift of life.
We had our key insight: 1 conversation with your next of kin about your donation decision could potentially save 10 lives.
So our task was two-fold: Increase the number of registered donors through awareness, and drive difficult, but much-needed conversations between potential donors and their next of kin.

STRATEGY :

Organ donation rates have been at a critical low for years, with media and audience fatigue setting in and no new angle or budget to drive attention to the issue.
Additionally, few people want to think about their death, and fewer still want to have this conversation with their loved ones, making the topic hard to get across the line with earned media.
So how do you inspire a nation to broach a less-than-inspiring topic? You situate it within a perennial national talking point: Sport.
In 2023 thousands of athletes, all having received or donated an organ, came together in Perth for The World Transplant Games.
With the Games being held in our own backyard, we saw an opportunity to tell a different kind of donation story.
Instead of telling the stories of lives lost and people left behind, we’d highlight inspirational stories of individuals who have gone on to achieve amazing things with their second chance at life, and families who are grateful everyday to have kept loved ones in their lives.
We had our strategy: Utilise the Perth WTG and its athletes to show that organ donation is about what is gained, rather than what is lost.

EXECUTION :

Second Chance Champions is a national PR campaign centred around a feature length documentary that tells the remarkable story of those competing at the 2023 World Transplants Games.
The film follows athletes’ progress throughout the Games as they chase a podium finish on a world stage – not just for their own glory but in honour of those who have given them a second chance at life.
To add newsworthiness to this, we created a bespoke Split Medal – designed to be shared between donor or donor family and transplant recipient. A symbolic and tangible artefact of organ donation itself, the Split Medal gave us a rich content opportunity and fresh talking point for media.
This approach gave us two hero moments to centre our campaign around and leverage for media interest. First, we invited news crews down to film the world-first splitting of the medals by winning athletes at the Games and secondly, utilised the launch of the documentary to engage in a widespread media campaign.
We selected three athlete case studies from across the country with rich, diverse stories that would engage the everyday Australian and allow for various unique, tailored media stories across multiple platforms.

RESULT :

Launching on Ten, Ten Play, Apple TV and Paramount Plus, Second Chance Champions got prime time national news coverage, unlocking an audience of 12 million Australians. Or, put differently, 50% of the adult population. That figure increased by a whopping 4 million through PR across TV, Online, Radio & Print.
This incredible reach generated $14 million in earned media and, more importantly, motivated families across the country to discuss a subject very few of us want to think about, let alone talk about.
On a behavioural level, Second Chance Champions also debunked dangerous myths about organ donation – helping shift public opinion and personal perceptions about transplantation and family consent, converting hesitant participants into could-be lifesavers. During the campaign period, organ donorship increased by a remarkable 60% (versus the prior period) – ensuring a critical reduction in Australia’s organ transplant waitlist.