In The Media

The Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH) Group was established in 2012 by the family of 23-year-old Sarah Frazer, who was tragically killed in a preventable traffic incident. The Group has achieved incredible results including the passing into NSW law of Sarah’s Rule – a ‘slow down, move over’ new road rule.
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I work with the NFP, its Platinum partners and Federal, State and Local Governments to help the Group both achieve behavioural and legislative change, and to attract funding.
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I have worked with the Group since 2016 on maximising its digital and social owned and earned channels, and on campaigns including National Road Safety Week (NRSW).
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An initiative of the SARAH Group, the week highlights the impact of road trauma and ways to reduce it. Around the country road initiatives are launched, community events are held, yellow ribbons are displayed, and icons are lit up in yellow to remember those we havel ost on the roads and to ask drivers to check their own behaviour and ‘drive soothers survive’.

Every level of Government is engaged from the Governor General, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to Federal, State and Local Government elected representatives and public servants who show support in a huge number of ways. We also work with road safety and emergency services leaders, as well as key associations and organisations such as AAA, Volvo, Altus Traffic, Roads Australia, and Ennis Flint.

In 2020, we reached the Australian and global population more than 25 million times through almost 5,000 media articles and social media mentions between during November, 2020.  Key events across the country included the lighting of iconic buildings and bridges in every state and territory including some of our biggest icons such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Oval, Melbourne Town Hall, Queensland’s Parliament House and the National Mint.

Thanks to very strong social media and distressed advertising campaigns, 2020 saw a 400% increase in both website traffic and pledges made. To date 34,222 drivers have signed a pledge to drive without distractions.
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Sample coverage

(In alphabetic order, click on outlet to go to article).

Parallel Parks is Australia’s first virtual reality (VR) project to enable people with disability, and others with mobility issues, to access previously inaccessible parts of our national parks.

An initiative of wellbeing services provider New Horizons – in partnership with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), People & Parks Foundation (PPF), Hamilton Island, Qantas and Telstra – the project explored the power of VR to remove barriers and increase a sense of wellbeing through immersion in nature.

Designed in partnership with people with disabilities, the initial project included virtually diving in the Great Barrier Reef, exploring Kangaroo Island, discovering the Murray River, and being awe-inspired by Uluru-Kata Tjuta.

My role was to carefully distill the key messages to explain that this was not a market-ready project but an exploration of the technology’s potential, with the hope that a company with greater resources and technological capability could undertake.

We facilitated design swarms with a number of corporate technology organisations to identify and leverage all resources available to the market and further develop the technology.

We then launched the pilot program with an experiential event in Martin Place and media interviews with the users who helped us to design the project.

The app received the Best Use of Technology Award at the Parks & Leisure Australia Awards.

Sample coverage

(Click on link to go to article)

Queer Screen celebrates the diversity of sexualities and gender identities through queer storytelling on screen, and one of its flagship events is the Mardi Gras Film Festival it has run for 26 years.

I began working with Queer Screen in 2013. They wanted to shift the media focus from the ‘what’s on’ columns to more meaningful discussions around the stories that were being told, and the artists creating them.

I developed a communications model by understanding what were the relevant media outlets, and media matching stories to their audiences six months before the Festival in order to facilitate real engagement with the filmmakers, and the appropriate time to discuss and review what are quite often sensitive topics.

I also work with a range of partners, from corporate to Government and venue partners, to promote their involvement.

Across 2018 & 2019 we received 891 media articles across all forms of media with 94 individual interviews with filmmakers or the Festival Director. We also tripled our mainstream coverage in those years, which is important to place us alongside key festivals for sponsorship opportunities and to increase our new audience members.

We have increased our star power attracting celebrities to our events including Rachel Griffiths, Danielle Brooks (OITNB), Jessica Mauboy and Danielle Cormack.

Sample coverage

(In alphabetic order, click on outlet to go to article).