World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

Those of you who follow this blog know that this is a topic of great importance to us here at Acart, as we are honoured to be the agency chosen to work with the Government of Canada on this important file. And we were further honoured with a Excel Award for the campaign's effectiveness in getting people to talk about — and even act on — this important social issue.



According to seniors.gc.ca:

Elder abuse is an important issue for Canadians. It is estimated that somewhere between 4 and 10 percent of seniors in Canada experience some kind of abuse. New research conducted by Environics for Human Resources and Social Development Canada has provided the following information * about Canadians' awareness of the issue of elder abuse.

• 96 percent of Canadians think most of the abuse experienced by older adults is hidden or goes undetected.
• 22 percent of Canadians think a senior they know personally might be experiencing some form of abuse.
• 90 percent of Canadians feel the abuse experienced by an older person often gets worse over time.
• Raising awareness among seniors about their right to live safely and securely is seen as the most important issue for governments when it comes to elder abuse with 9 in 10 Canadians (90.5 per cent) rating it as a high priority.
• 67 percent of Canadians feel older women are more likely to be abused than older men.
• 12 percent of Canadians have sought out information about a situation or suspected situation of elder abuse or about elder abuse in general.
• Almost 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent) have searched the internet for information specifically about elder abuse issues.

Seniors.gc.ca has lots of information on understanding and identifying elder abuse, whether it's physical, psychological, financial, or neglect. If you're caring for an older adult, you might also want to watch the older ad (not ours) embedded below, and ask yourself if you are treating your elders with all the understanding they deserve:



It's time for everyone to face the reality of elder abuse.

Acart Excels at Social Marketing

Acart just picked up some hardware at the 2010 IABC Ottawa Excel Awards Gala: The Excellence in Communication Leadership (EXCEL) Award for the Social Responsibility campaign category.



We entered the show with confidence, based on the phenomenal success of our Elder Abuse Awareness campaign for HRSDC: 58% total aided recall, 53% unaided recall and 54% aided TV recall. (The Government of Canada benchmark for aided recall is 36%.)

But creating change is what really matters in a social marketing campaign, and this one was a big deal to us. Elder abuse is more common and damaging than many people realize. From the very first day we began work for this campaign, we were conscious of the emotions and personal stories it would bring up. We, our clients, our friends at production house SOMA, and the actors all shared a sense of purpose in this campaign — as if we were all doing it for someone we knew.

And the general public reacted strongly as well. Of Canadians who recalled the campaign, without prompting 9% said they took specific action as a direct result: 72% of these said they discussed the ads with others and 4% called or visited their mother.

A big pat on the back to everyone who worked on this campaign — whether on the agency, client, or production side. We're really doing work that matters!



The Elder Abuse Awareness campaign is ongoing, and will be back n air next fall. See the whole campaign, and more of our Social issues Marketing work, in our advertising portfolio at acart.com.

Remember our Elder Abuse campaign? You're not alone!

Back in June, the Government of Canada launched our Elder Abuse campaign for HRSDC.

We were really proud of this spot, and everyone who worked on it — at HRSDC, Acart, SOMA, and even the actors — felt that we were obligated to do our best for such an important and emotional issue.

Apparently Canadian viewers felt the same way. We just found out that, in research conducted by TNS Canadian Facts last fall, this campaign achieved an amazing 58% unaided recall among Canadian adults outside Quebec!



As you can see, the benchmark for federal government campaigns is 36% unaided. Our clients told us these are the best results they've ever seen.

Of course, with social marketing, it's not enough to be seen. The actions taken by viewers (including those who recalled the ad with prompting) show that the campaign was successful in getting people to talk about the issue:



As a taxpayer, you'll probably be happy to know that the ROI was good, too: 28¢ per recall, and $3.22 per action.

The reason Québécois were not included in this phone survey is because the campaign did not run there. The Province of Quebec was doing its own campaign on the issue at the same time.

We did, however, produce a French version as well (for the many francophones in the rest of Canada).

Kudos to everyone involved in this, an excellent example of doing Work That Matters.

Respect your elders

Yesterday, Senator Marjory LeBreton, Minister of State (Seniors), officially launched the Elder Abuse social marketing campaign we created for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

You can read about the government's strategy, and see our national TV commercial, here. Or you can download our brochure here.

This was an emotionally challenging campaign for us, but also some of the most important social issues marketing we've done to date.

Elder abuse has high awareness in its more extreme forms (HRSDC says that 9 in 10 Canadians rate it as a high government priority). However, more subtle everyday forms of abuse such as infantilization, financial scams, and passive neglect continue to fly under the radar for many people.

Our objective was to bring elder abuse to the level of awareness of child abuse or spousal abuse. Our creative strategy was to put the responsibility for spotting it and stopping it in the viewer's hands — literally — by putting him or her in the place of a neighbour peering through the blinds at acts of abuse in his or her community.

We filmed this TV spot in Montreal last summer with director Yanick Paquin and Producer Jacinthe Arsenault at Soma PUB.

Parts of the filming were difficult for the actors, crew, clients, and us. Watching take after take of a woman walking away from her confused father, and a very angry man screaming at his frail mother, was uncomfortable to say the least. The consolation came when each of the actors, when we met with them afterward, told us how much they appreciated this ad, and what important work it is.