Bethanie provides life advice from ‘The Life Experts’ in latest brand campaign via Meerkats

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Bethanie provides life advice from ‘The Life Experts’ in latest brand campaign via Meerkats

Following Bethanie’s appointment of Meerkats last year, the agency has developed Bethanie’s new brand campaign. The campaign is the first piece amongst a significant scope of brand and strategic engagement.

 

In advertising, and the media more broadly, there’s very little focus on ageing and how to age well. In fact, there are very few older faces on television, billboards or newspaper ads at all. In collaboration with Meerkats, Bethanie Group has been working to change this with its latest campaign ‘The Life Experts’.

Says Chris How, CEO, Bethanie: “It was really important for us to focus on the authentic wisdom of ageing in a way that empowers and supports the ability of Bethanie residents to age with the best attitude. Who better than to show us how to age well than our incredible residents and clients?”

The insight was that every Bethanie customer is an expert on one thing: their life. It is a personal wisdom which is facilitated and promoted by Bethanie, in order to broaden and deepen our understanding of ageing – and by association, the services that Bethanie provides.

Listen to the radio spots:




 

Says Zoe Kitson, strategist, Meerkats: “We know that independence is vital to our self-worth, the value that we create in society. And due to society often brushing ageing aside as a problem, our self-worth can diminish over time as we age. So we tend to be isolated, lose our sense of value and become defined by our needs. We’re working with Bethanie to tackle this head on – by giving ownership of the ageing journey back to the people that matter the most.”

Bethanie provides life advice from ‘The Life Experts’ in latest brand campaign via Meerkats

Says Josh Edge, creative, Meerkats: “Obviously we’re an ageing population, but there’s not a lot of advertising that features people over the age of 70, 80, 90. So we thought it was really important to show some authentic faces from the Bethanie residents. We spent hours meeting, interviewing and sharing stories with residents and clients –aged from their late 50s to over 100. Then we gave them the opportunity to take a personal self-portrait (basically a selfie) to help them show how they wanted to be presented to the world.”

The campaign has launched across outdoor, radio, press and display, and captures the Life Advice from these experts with agency and personality. The self-portraits and customer stories will be shown across press, outdoor, radio and at Yagan Square, with more opportunities being planned. The campaign also launched with full page press in The West, using a handwritten letter from George, a 89-year-old Bethanie resident who had plenty of life advice to share.

Says Rikki Burns, creative director, Meerkats: “People are sick of being told what organisations stand for. It’s time to stop telling, and start proving. By using their campaign to give a voice to residents, Bethanie has set an example as an organisation that’s truly living their purpose.”

Clients: Carol Draper & Narelle Thompson
Business Director: Lucy Stoelwinder
Business Manager: Dre Liang
Business Coordinator: Carol-Ann Cronin
Creative Agency: Meerkats
Strategist: Zoe Jager
Creative Director: Rikki Burns
Senior Creative: Josh Edge
Art Direction: Rikki Burns & Chris Hyland
Finished Art: Jason Lees
Production Director: Danny Coleman
Photography: Luke Carter Wilton
Sound Production: Soundbyte
Engineer: Brad Habib
Media: Match & Wood – Victoria Valova

Bethanie provides life advice from ‘The Life Experts’ in latest brand campaign via Meerkats Bethanie provides life advice from ‘The Life Experts’ in latest brand campaign via Meerkats Bethanie provides life advice from ‘The Life Experts’ in latest brand campaign via Meerkats