Background & Context

Queensland's dispersed population(11) shares common traits, like treasuring the Australian way of life(12), homeownership(13), politically leaning towards conservatism(14) and self-identifying as relaxed(15).

Creative Challenge

Queenslanders' relaxed attitude and past relationship with severe weather events makes them ill-prepared and ill- equipped for the future (she’ll be right, after all).

People underestimate the damage of natural disasters.

According to the Ostrich Effect, we ignore negative information even if it may be helpful and bury our heads in the sand(16). This explains why 90% of people believe that damage from a Category-1/2 storm would be “very or somewhat low”. When Category-1/2 Tropical Cyclone Marcia struck Queensland (2015), it resulted in insured losses of over $500M(17).

Prior experience with a natural disaster doesn’t make people more careful in the future.

During Cyclone Larry (2006), the majority of people impacted had previously experienced a cyclone, yet a quarter of them did nothing to prepare for it. Cyclone Larry damaged 50% of homes in its path, at a cost exceeding $1B(18).

Solution

Social learning theory suggests that modelling behaviours is an effective way to learn new ones(19). By showcasing resilience in action, we wanted to demonstrate its power, desirability, and ease of integration into Queensland homes.

Execution

Creating Resilience Rd

Resilience Rd is a strategic extension of Suncorp’s pioneering initiative One House, and aimed to demonstrate to everyday Australians the feasibility and affordability of integrating resilience into their homes.

We renovated five neighbouring homes located on Bowen Street in Rockhampton, a town at the epicentre of major disaster, updating each home to withstand floods, cyclones, and bushfires.

Each home underwent expert analysis and received upgrades such as steel mesh window coverings to deflect debris and disperse embers during bushfires, cyclone-rated roof fixings to prevent roof loss in high winds, and fiber cement walls resistant to flood damage.

The success of this initiative led to Bowen Street being co-named Resilience Rd by Rockhampton Council.

Launching Resilience Rd

To launch Resilience Rd, we made a short film documentary that told the stories of each family’s resilient renovation and their experiences with extreme weather. Even the Rockhampton Mayor spoke on the documentary about the need for our homes to be more resilient.

The story of Resilience Rd was covered by major Australian news networks at launch, including multiple live crosses to the road on the Today Show.

Imbedding Resilience into Culture

We knew that we couldn’t embed resilience into culture by just targeting traditional channels. So, since the beginning we have utilised PR and media partnerships to hammer home the message of resilience in culture.

Recognising the importance of cultural integration, we partnered with local celebrities like to normalise resilience.

Queenslanders are obsessed with renovating their homes but their renovations, but often not with resilience in mind. So we created content that encouraged them to make their renovations resilient ones and promoted the concept through media collaborations with popular renovation platforms like The Block, Pinterest, and Real Estate Australia and Grand Designs.