Vancouver’s E Comm 9-1-1 launched a new campaign Monday to raise awareness of the roughly 200 accidental calls the emergency dispatch service receives every day.
The campaign includes an animated spot about mobile phone “pocket dialing.” The campaign comes from Cossette Vancouver, which won the account in a review last October.
Michael Milardo, creative director at Cossette, says not only do pocket dials take resources away from real emergencies, they also further drain resources because most people hang up when they realize their mistake.
“The campaign hopes to raise awareness of the problem and get callers to stay on the line if they do make a mistake,” he said, adding that this is the first phase of the campaign. Phase two will communicate the right and wrong time to call 911 and what constitutes a real emergency.
Milardo said that the campaign is 90% digital and includes a 60-second YouTube video and a 15-second pre-roll ad that will run with sponsored posts on Facebook.
The ad shows a cell phone being tossed into a purse and meeting various characters, including a mischievous chap stick and an angry set of keys, before encasing itself in protective outerwear.
Milardo said the objects are all original crafted puppets brought to life through stop motion software by Bent Image Lab of Portland, Oregon.
“We’ve tried to create a vulnerable character who is alone in this dark space, but in the end, once he has a suit of armor on, he becomes the hero,” said Milardo.
The campaign also includes wild postings of posters with characters dressed up in most wanted-style posters and a Twitter component inviting consumers to tweet their own pocket dialing stories to #pocketdialmishaps.
