Making the famous fire danger rating personal.
Challenge.
Most British Columbians assume if a wildfire is coming to their door, they’re powerless to stop it. But the truth is, simple household chores like mowing your lawn, removing leaves from your gutters, and storing combustibles safely could save your home from disaster. Most homeowners, unfortunately, skip these chores when summer rolls around—right when wildfire risk levels are at their most extreme. So FireSmart BC needed to inform and empower homeowners by showing them their home’s wildfire risk level is within their control.
Solution.
We changed the meaning of the iconic wildfire danger rating sign to represent the risk level of a home. We created a complete campaign, using TV, out-of-home, and digital ads. These creative executions featured what we call “The Big 3” FireSmart tasks: lawnmowing, cleaning gutters, and storing combustibles away from your house. But instead of simply showing these chores being completed, we showed the real issue: homeowners avoiding these tasks, but not before they set their property’s very own wildfire danger rating to “extreme.” This was a simple yet powerful way to show that an individual home’s wildfire risk level is not by chance; it’s by choice.
Key Research.
Research revealed that even a few FireSmart tasks make a huge difference. So we decided to think small by keeping the call to action easy.
Thinking Big.
We created a province-wide campaign using high-frequency ad placements on TV, out-of-home, and online—targeted at wildfire hot spots.
