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surf life saving & qantas sponsorship
Did you know Qantas just signed up as a national sponsor of Surf Life Saving Australia?
Surf safety is a massive issue in Australia. Last year, there were 150 coastal drownings, which is a big tragedy because most of these are preventable.
Most coastal drownings happen at unpatrolled beaches and the victims are often tourists who don't understand the ocean. Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) is a unique institution and very good at providing safe swimming areas. However it is not always easy to help travellers.
Back to Qantas. They literally fly in higher risk international visitors to the Australia and they can help Surf Life Saving get the message out. But just a message about "Swim between the flags" might not be enough.
Research by Monash University found 30% of respondents born overseas thought the "Swim between the flags" meant "only go between these flags if you are a good swimmer", which is exactly the reverse of the intended message. They suggested a change to the slogan to "Stay Between the Flags" to increase comprehension, but I digress.
The challenge for the new Qantas & SLSA partnership is to find a way to make a tangible difference to drowning statistics, in a way that fits both brands.
Today, imagine you're the Partnership Manager for Surf Life Saving.
With Qantas on your side now, you have access to an audience buckled in their seats and a national network of surf clubs and volunteers on beaches.
How could you leverage this big brand partnership to save lives and build both Qantas and Surf Lifesaving brands in the minds of Aussies and visitors?
Do you try to educate them and bring them into the Surf Lifesaving culture or go hard with a message that scares visitors to make them aware of the dangers?​
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the strategy standoff
Strategy A: Education
Surf Lifesaving could develop a positive education program for Qantas to promote to passengers as a surf education "passport"
You could create a virtual app to deliver a short surf course. Visitors would learn the basics and complete a quiz to land the knowledge.
On the other hand, education can be slow to build scale and would require active participation from tourists who may just want to hit the sand without "homework" to do.
Strategy B: The "Grim Reaper" Approach
Taking a leaf from the famous 1980s AIDS campaign, and our cigarette warnings, you could use a fear hook to get attention and highlight the real dangers of the ocean for tourists who really need to pay more attention and understand the dangers of the surf.
Qantas could play hard-hitting videos on approach to landing, showing the reality of surf rips and drownings. A little reality would cut through the holiday excitement.
However, tourists might disengage entirely with a fear hook or, worse, become too terrified to visit the beach at all, hurting tourism.
so, which did they choose?
Cast your vote to find out!
good job, strategy a was chosen!
better luck next time, strategy a was chosen!
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But what did this mean for Qantas...
outcome: facilitator commentary
Matt Braithwaite-Young
Managing Partner
t +61 2 9002 3100
Surf Life Saving Australia and Qantas went with education over fear and launched the Beach Passport.
Beach Passport is a free online course that takes a visitor through the basics of water safety by showing them how to identify rips, understand flags, and what to do in an emergency.
Qantas uses its reach to put the passport in front of travellers through their frequent flyer program and in-flight entertainment. And on the beaches, Surf Lifesavers promote the passport via posters and QR codes at all patrolled beaches in Australia.
Turning Tourists into Educated Visitors
I love this idea because it changes the dynamic of travel. When a tourist interacts with a cultural feature of a country, such as surf lifesaving, in a sense they become a visitor, not a tourist.
The Beach Passport gives the traveller a small but significant connection to a national institution and way of life and they may even feel comfortable popping by the patrol tent and say g'day.
The Passport not only reduces their risk of drowning but increases the value of their trip by making them directly connect to Surf Lifesaving as a cultural feature of Australia.
This is not a new observation. A famous Adman called Howard Gossage first had this concept back in 1969, but candidly I have no idea if it was the spark for this idea.
Gossage was a San Francisco ad man and helped Qantas establish a foothold in the USA in the 1960s. I have a lot of time for his ads for Qantas. His best, arguably, was a campaign to name a plane that ended in a girl winning a kangaroo!
In a speech back in 1969, Gossage pointed out that Surf Life Saving clubs were not just safety posts. He saw them as deep cultural hubs—something unmistakably Australian.
He argued that the best way to market Australia was to invite people into these unique cultural experiences. Fifty years later, Qantas and SLSA are finally doing just that.
Incidentally, Gossage also pointed out the opportunity to make the same "visitor" connection with Aboriginal culture.
How to Make Your Strategy Fly
This case is a great example of a combined sponsorship creating more than just badge slapping on uniforms. Qantas has a perfect audience and Surf Lifesaving has the expertise and coverage on beaches.
By combining them in the Passport rather than just a fear message and a brand on patrol shirt sleeves, they created value for everyone; particularly by turning tourists into visitors.
What's your equivalent of a "passport" that might use customer understanding to solve a real problem for your organisation?
At Turning Leaf, we help leadership teams move beyond the obvious answers and facilitate tough conversations that lead to insights, breakthroughs and clear, actionable strategies.
If you are ready to stay between the flags when it comes to your strategy, give me a call on 0410 598 538 or check out our website. We will help you create plans that get done.​
Matt Braithwaite-Young, Turning Leaf 02 9002 3100
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