303 MullenLowe Perth zoom in on coercive control in new campaign

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PERTH, AUSTRALIA — A new WA Government campaign reframes the way West Australians look at family and domestic violence, and educates on the subtle but insidious nature of coercive control.

Developed by 303 MullenLowe Perth and implemented by Carat WA, the new campaign highlights the different types of abuse that are recognized as family and domestic violence, using the tagline: “It doesn’t have to be physical. Coercive control is family and domestic violence.”

It focuses on educating the public, including perpetrators, victim-survivors and those around them, to understand what coercive control is, and the impact it can have on individuals, families and communities. The campaign recognizes that children and young people are victim-survivors in their own right.

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It is the first phase of a two-year awareness campaign which will be seen across BVOD, OOH, social, digital, radio, ambient, press, and search. 303 MullenLowe’s campaign remit extended across strategy, creative, media strategy, all through-the-line communications, web content, and social executions.

303 MullenLowe Perth ECD Sara Oteri said: “To make the connection that coercive control isn’t just unacceptable, it IS domestic violence, we borrowed symbolism associated with physical violence to mark our footage every time coercive control took place. The technique not only draws your attention to the otherwise subtle abuse taking place, it cements that coercive control is a form of violence, even when it’s not physical.”

Insights from people with lived experience, sector and Aboriginal stakeholders and community members were used to develop the strategy and creative. 303 MullenLowe Perth Chief Strategy Officer Matt Oakley said the discussions had a profound impact on how the team approached the campaign: “The research groups we attended were hugely enlightening. Not only did we get a far better understanding of the prevailing attitudes and beliefs held on the subject, but you could see a series of light bulb moments. Whether it was men who previously dismissed controlling behaviors, or people with lived experience of family and domestic violence who said that at the time they were unaware of what was happening to them, everyone appreciated just how difficult coercive control is to recognize. We hope the resulting campaign completely reframes the way West Australians look at this issue.”

Mediahub Perth General Manager Kylie Macey said: “Whilst we cannot broadly target people based on their experience, we can design a media strategy to be ready for all scenarios and leverage the key principles of persistency and consistency to increase education of coercive control, creating unique journeys for the WA community as they move towards better understanding of coercive control.”

Carat WA worked collaboratively with 303 MullenLowe and Mediahub to evolve the strategy, connecting critical audience insights with media planning principles to ensure the campaign could evoke the necessary impact it required.

Carat WA Client Partner Michelle Testa said: “The research findings were enlightening and highlighted the scale of the job to be done. We mobilized the WA media industry to ideate and support the strategy, building bespoke solutions to support the campaign framework. This work challenged the team at every step of the way as they persisted to develop a solution that would get to the heart of the issue for WA.”

It is the second campaign launched for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet by 303 MullenLowe, Mediahub and Carat WA in recent months; in July, it launched the “Don’t Assume You’re Immune’ campaign,” as part of a broader effort to tackle vaccine misinformation.