If there’s ever been a time to do a celebratory dance in the lounge room, this is it! Lutheran Care’s popular advertising campaign for its Foster Care program is a finalist in the Australian Marketing Institute’s prestigious Marketing Excellence Awards.
Created in response to a particularly challenging time for Foster Care recruitment, the Be the Village campaign is a series of playful and fun commercials which have aired on television and online. They have broken new ground and are receiving national attention by focusing on the fun and mutual rewards that can flow from fostering a child, young person or sibling group.
Overall, the campaign has reached an audience of 2 million online and has been seen across TV screens by hundreds of thousands of viewers tuning into TV stations Seven, Ten, SBS, Kayo and Foxtel.
Lutheran Care is one of six finalists – and the only South Australian finalist – in the ‘Not for Profit’ category, amongst well-known peers including international organisation Word Vision and the Australia-wide Fight MND campaign.
The Be the Village campaign was created in partnership with Adelaide advertising agency Welbourn O’Brien. The ‘Be the Village’ tagline at the heart of the campaign was co-designed in collaboration with current Lutheran Care Foster Carers, drawing on the proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. Each ad in the series is energetic, vibrant, playful and fun, whilst normalising fostering and celebrating the everyday humorous moments of family life, going against the grain from traditional foster care advertising which uses more melancholy messaging.
Lutheran Care’s Head of Public Relations Katrina Ranford said being named an AMI Marketing Excellence finalist is more than just recognition of our creativity on a national scale.
“This is a testament to the impact and commitment the entire Lutheran Care team is making to create meaningful change that resonates far beyond our organisation and the services we deliver,” Ms Ranford said.
“A heartfelt thank you to Josh and the team at Welbourn O’Brien for their support in capturing the vision and ‘feel’ of the ads and bringing it to life. We look forward to continuing this fantastic collaboration with Welbourn O’Brien and achieve more great work together in the future.”
In the first ad, we see a respite carer practising playing a car racing video game ahead of the weekend, when she will be hosting two young people. The ad cuts to the three of them playing the video game, and then transitions to a subsequent respite care weekend where they’re enjoying friendly competition at the Tailem Bend go kart track. The ad features an Aboriginal cast, reflecting the importance of keeping Aboriginal children and young people in care connected with culture, and prioritising the recruitment of more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foster Carers.
With a basketball theme to appeal to the many sports lovers in the South Australian community, the second ad portrays the honest bumps and bruises of fostering and the joy of being the cheerleader behind children and young people’s successes. The ad was broadcast during key sporting events such as the AFL’s Gather Round and international cricket coverage.
In the third ad – which is still on air – foster fathers work together to sew a dragon costume for their foster daughter’s Book Week. The comical ad follows their challenges and struggles in their attempts, but ultimately, the child is ecstatic with the result, and viewers learn that “we all need connection, not perfection”. The inclusion of a same sex fostering couple reflects Lutheran Care’s inclusivity – with inclusion being one of Lutheran Care’s core values – and reiterates that successful Foster Carers can come from all walks of life. Launched to coincide with Pride Week and lead into Book Week, the ad also represents and celebrates the Foster Care Village’s existing carers from the rainbow community, and encourages more same-sex couples to consider fostering.
This recent three-part series was a follow up to Lutheran Care and Welbourn O’Brien’s first Be the Village collaboration for Foster Care. This TV commercial personified the fostering journey through a foster mother climbing a mountain with a young person in her care, symbolising perseverance, and grit in the face of challenges, obstacles, and exhaustion. At the summit and the conclusion of the ad, we meet the grandmother who is also the foster carer who guided the mother on her own journey. This highlights how cycles can be broken across generations with the support of a Village. To complement the ad, filmed interviews with two existing carers, Angela and Tiki, were also released.
The Be the Village campaign was created as an innovative way to connect with potential and aspiring Foster Carers and bring hope and inspiration, at a time when Foster Care recruitment in South Australia has been particularly bleak. There have been notable drops in active and accredited Foster Carers since the pandemic further compounded by the current cost-of-living and housing crises. The past two decades have unfortunately seen a steady increase in numbers of children and young people requiring placements, and a decline in carer availability. According to the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services 2024, South Australia’s rate of children and young people requiring care is “40 per cent higher than the national average”, making this ad campaign particularly timely and necessary.
As a result of the Be the Village campaign, the ads have not only been viewed by thousands of potential foster carers, but the engagement data is showing the ads are resonating with audiences.
In addition to the incredible TV exposure, airing during popular and primetime programming on free to air and services such as Kayo, the ads have received hundreds of thousands of views online.
Thanks to the success of this campaign, Lutheran Care recorded a significant surge in traffic to its Foster Care landing page, with visits up 472 per cent. On the ground, this has translated to a massive 200+ enquiries.
A total of 68 households attended Information Sessions about fostering, a 17% increase from the 15 months prior to this campaign.
Lutheran Care Foster Care has a huge 22 active assessments, which is very encouraging, in a period where applications and assessments across the sector at other agencies have slowed to virtually nil.
Each one of the enquiries and applications received offers the potential of another child or young person, or sibling group having the opportunity to find a safe and supportive home, and potentially have their life changed for the better.
Lutheran Care Chief Executive Officer Rohan Feegrade was excited to share the news about the Be the Village campaign being thrust into a national spotlight by the Australian Marketing Insitute.
“Being a national finalist amongst some of the biggest names in the marketing industry with Australia-wide campaigns is an incredible achievement,” he says.
“It reflects the consistent excellence in the work we do and our commitment to pushing boundaries, driving innovation, and delivering outstanding results for the people we support.”
The finalists were announced on 13 August. The Marketing Excellence Award winners will be announced in Melbourne on Thursday, 17 October.
Lutheran Care’s Foster Care services are funded by the State Government through the Department for Child Protection, with Lutheran Care’s role being to recruit, assess, train and support foster carers and raise awareness of the importance of fostering.
Lutheran Care offers both Generalist and Specialist Foster Care and provide a range of care options that foster carers can choose from, plus offers training and support to its applicants and approved carers, walking with them every step of the way.
If you would like to speak to one of our staff members about your interest in fostering, you can;
- call 08 8337 8787
- Download our information booklet
- attend one of our information sessions , or
- submit an online enquiry form.
Find out more about fostering and the Lutheran Care Village online here.
Be the Village.