The Second installment in SA health’s challenging behavior campaign was launched with a provocative, social content piece.

The “reality advertising” format that was so successful in the multi-award winning “Hands off our Ambos” campaign has been revisited with security camera footage of a working Emergency Department. The webfilm contrasts the aggressive behavior of a low priority patient with the plight of critically injured patients who have their lives hanging in the balance, in a busy city ED.

Created to combat a sharp rise in aggressive and abusive behaviour towards staff in emergency departments, the campaign was the outcome of extensive consultation with hospital staff and dozens of hours spent on the ground, in ED’s across the state.

Showpony strategist, Greg Kavanagh said: “Our research revealed a common trigger for this aggression was frustration over ‘extended’ waiting times and the perception that some patients were ‘queue jumping’. Our challenge was to make the public understand what really goes on in an ED, and that when it comes to saving lives, waiting isn’t an emergency’

Group Creative Director Parris Mesidis added: “We deliberately chose to go with raw, ‘security style’ footage to get our audience as close as possible to the harsh realty of life in an ED. Filming in a working Emergency Department, using real staff, was a big risk, but it’s what makes the spot work.”

Posted on the SA Health facebook page, the film had over a million views in 18 hours and a second million in just 6 hours. Eclipsing the success of SA Health’s, ‘Hands off our ambos’ campaign that was viewed over 1 million times in 2015, “Waiting is not an emergency has been viewed over 6.5 million times in it’s first week, with 300k interactions including 60,000 shares and 27,000 comments.

“While the campaign was designed to help South Australian healthcare workers, it’s clear that the message has resonated around the world with tens of thousands of comments expressing a new found perspective on the function of Emergency departments, and a new level of respect for the dedicated professionals that work there”, said Kavanagh. “The marketing team at SA Health were incredibly brave to use this format and we’re delighted that they’ve been rewarded with such an outstanding result and so many supportive comments”.