Red Cross partners with MTV

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“If something went horribly wrong on a night out, would you know what to do?”

This was the question posed to MTV Australia staff when they took part in a company-wide initiative to come up with a creative concept that would communicate Red Cross save-a-mate message 'Look after your Mates' in a way that would resonate with MTV’s 16 to 24-year-old audience.

The message 'Look after your Mates' underpins the Red Cross save-a-mate program, a national youth initiative that focuses on young people’s safety and well-being and helps them to make informed decisions to reduce the harm associated with alcohol and other drugs.

Dave Sibley, managing director at MTV Networks Australia & New Zealand, is a supporter of the save-a-mate campaign, said Red Cross national youth health and wellbeing coordinator Belinda Stedman.  

“The obvious synergy between save-a-mate’s target age group and MTV’s demographic was ideal when communicating the program’s health and harm reduction messages to a youth audience an we jumped at the chance to work with MTV,” Stedman said.

She added: “By working with MTV we are able to take save-a-mate to a far broader and more diverse youth market than we can ever achieve using our existing resources and funding.”

Whilst the original objective of the project was for MTV staff to come up with one campaign that could run on-air on MTV Australia and on mtv.com.au and saveamate.org.au, Red Cross finally selected two winning ideas – ‘Club’ and ‘Dickhead’ - from a total of 10 concepts.  

Both ‘Club’ and ‘Dickhead’ were concepts of MTV staff and written, produced and directed by members of MTV’s creative team with acting roles undertaken by MTV staff and friends.

The first Red Cross save-a-mate campaign, ‘Club’, was based around ‘status updates’ in social media. The TVCs, which were timed for broadcast on MTV in February in line with Australia’s festival season, saw clubbers dancing as they updated their status in real time.  

These messages, which were superimposed over footage, start with ‘This is off the hook’ but soon turn to ‘I feel wrong…’ and ‘I need help’. The TVC closes with the question ‘If you had to, could you save a mate?” with a call to drive viewers to saveamate.org.au.

The second follow-up 45- and 30- second TVCs, entitled ‘Dickhead’, which are scheduled to be broadcast on MTV Australia today (March 1, 2010), tells the story of Marcus who is socialising at a party with his friends. He is drinking alcohol and takes a drug handed to him by a friend.  

Marcus passes out, and, once again, the campaign again closes with ‘If you had to, could you save a mate?” and a call to drive viewers to saveamate.org.au.   

A key part of save-a-mate’s work is recruiting volunteers aged 18-30 as roving “crew” at major festivals and events.  They attend more than 200 events and reach more than 400,000 young people every year.  

Credits – ‘Club’
Concept: MTV staff
Director/Producer/Editor ‘Club’ – Andy Wallace - MTV
Music:  Wes Chew - Sonar music

Credits – ‘Dickhead’
Concept: MTV staff
Director/Producer/Editor ‘Dickhead’ – Yvette Paxinos - MTV
Music:  Limb Limb – Golden Fang.

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'Club'

'Dickhead'