Ipswich City Council needed a series of films helping residents prepare for floods, bushfires, storms, and livestock emergencies before they happened. Rather than standard government spokespeople, the campaign centred on a young boy guiding viewers through each scenario. The shift in approach changed everything about how the information landed.
Emergency messaging often becomes repetitive. Checklists, warnings, and formal information can lose impact when audiences feel they've seen it all before. The campaign needed to cover four distinct topics without feeling disconnected, and using a child protagonist introduced its own complexity around performance, pacing, and natural delivery.
Each topic became its own short film built around the young protagonist leading audiences through preparation steps. Production moved across multiple Ipswich environments including rural properties, homes, bushland, and flood-prone locations. One standout moment involved the young lead delivering lines while riding a horse. There was just one complication: he had never ridden a horse before. Watching him balance dialogue, movement, and horse-riding at the same time became one of the more entertaining parts of production. The campaign embraced those moments entirely.
Strong engagement across social, web, and cinema placements. People actually stayed to watch emergency preparedness content, which isn't something that happens when you lead with a checklist.
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