Multicultural communications agency Ethnolink has developed a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) campaign for NSW State Emergency Service (SES) that delivers flood warning and safety messages for multicultural communities in Sydney’s north-west.
The campaign, which will run across a range of channels, has been launched on the back of news that three people in NSW from multicultural backgrounds tragically lost their lives during flooding events earlier this year.
Minister for Emergency Services Steph Cooke said the campaign would assist with the community’s ability to respond in a crisis.
“Tragically three people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities lost their lives during the February-March flood event and we must continue to ensure that flood warnings and safety messages reach everyone living in this part of Greater Sydney,” she said.
The campaign, which has been launched in six languages – Arabic, Cantonese, Persian, Korean, Mandarin and Punjabi – features community members and NSW SES personnel communicating important safety messages about flooding in-language.
Ethnolink developed campaign assets including videos, digital and social media content, print ads and radio ads, and was responsible for research, creation of assets from concept to creative execution, community consultation, translation, typesetting and community testing of in-language assets.
Speaking at launch, Ethnolink founder and CEO Costa Vasili said: “This campaign has the potential to save lives, and it’s been a pleasure to work with a client such as the NSW State Emergency Service that cares deeply about equitable access to important information about flooding for all people, regardless of the language that they speak.
“Leveraging community voices was central to this campaign because our research indicated that communities typically trust messages delivered in-language by people from their community, particularly when they are in a position of authority.”
NSW SES Commissioner Carlene York said the campaign was a significant step. “This campaign is really important to target locals in the Hawkesbury-Nepean community who speak languages other than English, and some of whom have experienced multiple floods in the past 18 months.”
The campaign launched today on video, digital, print, radio and across socials.
