SAVE A LIFE IN SIX MINUTES
Challenge
On average, 30 people suffer from cardiac arrest in Belgium every day – but only 3 of them survive. The survival rate could triple if action is undertaken on three levels: more defibrillators (AEDs) made available to reach victims within a six-minute window; more citizens getting trained to use AED devices; and the instalment of an alert system to trigger faster intervention. Heartsafe, a not-for-profit health initiative, aims to turn Belgium into a six-minute heart-safe environment. Heartsafe launched its six-minute communication campaign in 2022, but the organisation had struggled to put its complex message and demand for three-fold stakeholder action on the media agenda. Our mission was clear. However, the real challenge was that there were no new Heartsafe initiatives or milestones on the horizon.
Solution
The traditional approach would have been yet another pitch round. But journalists are increasingly busy. They skim over pitch emails and delete anything that doesn’t immediately attract their attention. They get annoyed over yet another phone call from a PR person who doesn’t get to the point. With a complex story and no “new news” to tell, we knew that a “cold” pitch wasn’t going to deliver success.
In a creative move to make our pitch email stand up to such an important cause, we turned it into an interactive digital experience. Inspired by the popular game GeoGuessr, we challenged journalists to save a cardiac arrest victim and find the nearest defibrillator on a street-view map within six minutes. Were they up to the task?
Our goal was to immerse journalists in the experience of rushing to find an AED – increasing their empathy for the Heartsafe initiative. A digital game dropped them in a street-view map of a Belgian city, 1000 meters away from an AED. Their mission was to find the AED within 6 minutes. A green heart-shaped compass pointed in the right direction. No matter whether they won or lost, each journalist was then directed to key facts about the issue and the Heartsafe solution. The goal of the gamification element was to engage journalists and make them receptive to our pitch.
Results
37,5% of the targeted journalists launched our game at least once – generating an earned media ROI of 1:10. Delivering on our objectives, media coverage included in-depth articles in key opinion press such as Knack, La Libre Belgique, and De Medische Referentie. The articles discussed the need for multi-stakeholder action, delivering the Heartsafe messages and creating a sense of urgency.
