Drowning is the most common deadly accident for children 1-6 years old in Sweden. When an accident occurs, knowledge of CPR is crucial. Alarmingly, 6 out of 10 Swedish parents did not know how to do CPR on children, according to a new national survey.

Insurance company Trygg-Hansa has worked with water safety in Sweden for over 65 years, and are renowned for donating thousands of lifebuoys to public beaches over the years. Now, they wanted to bring attention to the major gap in CPR-skills. The brief was to develop an idea that could generate attention in order to educate the public. The objectives were to increase public knowledge of CPR, increase bookings of Trygg-Hansa’s digital CPR training and improve brand consideration among parents.

The idea was to offer parents a way to bring CPR skills to the beach, regardless of previous knowledge. So, in a life-or-death situation, information on how to save a child’s life would be present when it matters most. The solution was to create a completely new medium to carry our message.

By designing tattoos for children that illustrate the main steps of CPR, the bodies of swimming children were transformed into living instruction manuals on how to save a life.

The campaign was carried out during the summer - the most severe period of drowning accidents involving children.

The main design item consisted of temporary tattoos illustrating four critical life-saving steps of CPR. To overcome stress or language barriers, the tattoos use easily understandable symbol design. QR-codes on the packaging linked to Trygg-Hansa’s website for in-depth information.

Tattoo samples were distributed to media outlets alongside a press release. Short videos were produced for owned and social channels introducing the tattoos and pointing the audience to a campaign page for more information and forms to book a CPR-course.

To increase impact and create relevance locally, tattoo boxes were designed and placed at beaches with the highest rate of drowning-accidents.

All units use brand elements with the red and white colors and Trygg-Hansa’s iconic life-buoy logo.

Tattoos were also distributed by the Swedish Lifesaving Society to swimming schools across the nation.

By introducing tattoos for children with CPR-instructions during peak drowning season, the whole nation started talking about CPR. The story about the life-saving tattoos were covered on TV, radio, podcasts and influencer channels, giving Trygg-Hansa a platform to educate the public about CPR.

The tattoo boxes placed on beaches resulted in interview opportunities for Trygg-Hansa’s spokesperson with local and national radio and TV stations, including Sweden’s biggest morning news show.

The campaign reached and exceeded all its objectives:

After the campaign, a new national survey showed an increase in public knowledge:

Pre campaign: 60% unsure of CPR. Post campaign: 85% are familiar with CPR.

Number of bookings of Trygg-Hansa’s CPR-trainings increased by 70% compared to previous summer.

Brand consideration among parents increased by 10% - reaching the highest measured results in Trygg-Hansa’s history.

And most importantly, 33% fewer children drowned in the summer of 2021,

compared to the previous summer.