Crime Stoppers Bushfire Arson Campaign – Reckless Fires Cost Lives

Project Summary

The Crime Stoppers Victoria (CSV) Bushfire Arson and Reckless Fires project is a marketing and PR campaign designed to reduce the number of bushfires occurring in Victoria, by encouraging community members to report arson and suspicious fire behaviour to Crime Stoppers and help reduce the incidence of deliberately or recklessly lit bush and grass fires.

Background and Situation Context

The Royal Commission into Black Saturday Bushfires Crime Stoppers Victoria recommended Crime Stoppers Victoria lead a state-wide Bushfire Arson and Reckless Fire Awareness” campaign. The objective was to reduce the number of bushfires in Victoria, as at the time statistics indicated that up to half of all bushfires in Victoria were the result of deliberate or reckless actions. As a result, CSV has produced an annual community education campaign for the past eight fire seasons, which equips the community with the appropriate call to action, and increases awareness around the issue of bushfire arson and reckless fires in Victoria. The campaign focus has varied across the lifetime of the campaign, from encouraging the reporting of deliberate arson to Crime Stoppers, to raising awareness of the criminal aspects of reckless behaviour in starting a bushfire.

Through encouraging the community to take an active role in crime prevention and detection, CSV promotes a holistic community approach to preventing bushfire arson and reckless fires, which may lead to a greater capacity to strengthen resilience.

Activities

The campaign has grown and evolved to encompass a number of activities to encourage awareness of, and engagement with, the message. At a basic level, the campaign included

• Advertising elements including television, radio, print, outdoor, and digital media.
• Public Relations (PR) elements, press conferences and media events.
• Community engagement elements including attendance at Field Days and other events.

Accompanying the PR and media campaign, CSV has worked collaboratively with the National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson (NCRBA) to commission a world-first longitudinal study into community attitudes to bushfire arson and bushfire arson reporting. This ongoing research has influenced the development of campaign strategy and marketing programs; the campaign strategy undergoes a review each year in line with research outcomes.

Results

The NCRBA research has shown that over the lifetime of the campaign, there has been a significant increase in the likelihood of community members to report bushfire arson, and a 13 per cent increase in the likelihood of community members to make a report to Crime Stoppers. Between 2009/2010 and 2016/2017, the campaign generated 835 community information reports made through the Crime Stoppers call centre or online reporting service.

What knowledge or product outcomes did the project accomplish?

Finalist for 2016 Fire Awareness Awards (Community Prevention and Preparedness) 835 community information reports, passed to Victoria Police for follow-up and actioning as appropriate Comprehensive longitudinal research study into community attitudes to bushfire arson and bushfire arson reporting.

Reflection

Identifying the best methods, channels and messages to reach different community segments and drive reporting has been a continual challenge. Over the years, CSV has been able to use the NCRBA research data to refine where, how and what messaging is used to raise awareness of the issue and drive community action. It has been challenging to identify the hidden impact of the campaign. The CSV has been able to track outputs (such as media placements) and outcomes (such as number of information reports received) and changes in attitudes to reporting (through the NCRBA research). However, it has been an ongoing challenge to identify and quantify what other positive benefits the campaign has had (such as decreased firebug activity, changes in personal fire behaviour, and increased wariness of reported fire behaviour). We are continually looking at ways to measure this hidden impact better. Multiple factors have contributed to the success of the campaign, including the use of targeted messaging for different communities and sectors, the use of multiple media channels to deliver messaging, the mix of community engagement and media activities, and the increasing use of digital to reach targeted segments. The campaign has experienced longitudinal success by continually evolving to meet community need, and developing new campaign creative to remain interesting and relevant across time. One element CSV did not change enough was the format of media launches and press events, using the same format in the same communities with the same visual prop and messaging for the first six years of the campaign. This format and visual messaging slowly lost its impact; CSV should have changed this format and messaging earlier to retain better media and community cut-through with media events. There is scope to replicate the campaign in other settings, including interstate and overseas. Another organisation could use the campaign framework to build the basis for a similar but localised campaign to address fire issues in the relevant jurisdiction.

Critical Success Factors

• Engaging and relevant campaign messaging.
• Thorough research used to inform campaign strategy.
• Strong community, inter-agency and media partnerships.

Barriers to Success

• Campaign messaging needs constant refresh in order to remain interesting and newsworthy.
• Regional media roadshow component quite resource-intensive.

Additional Project Details