It’s time for the “why” of ageing and ageing services to be explained – so we did, with a five-part TV and digital media series.
It is a truism that most Australians still do not understand what retirement villages, home care and residential care really are: what are these services, why do they exist and why would I want them?
And if people don’t understand them, they don’t value them – and when a negative story arises, they accept it as fact.
All of us are also in denial of our ageing, and so we do not research, discuss or plan our later years – and when a train crash occurs with a fall or other event, we are mostly blindsided and left with fewer options, and often bad ones.
It’s time to tell our story
As the media group that reports on these sectors, we decided it’s time to be proactive and build the “why” story, and that is what The Best Thirty Years is.
It’s a five-part TV and digital media series designed to be available for everyone to find easily when they enter the ageing journey.
The first episode goes to air on 9GEM nationally this Saturday at 1 PM.
The five programs explain the “why” of:
- Ageing from 50 to 100
- Land lease communities
- Retirement villages
- Home care
- Residential care
Not a corporate video
When we were strategising this communications project, the natural path was to do travelogue-style videos that presented happy, smiling customers, with plenty of gloss. But this is a serious journey in all people’s lives, and to take this perhaps frivolous approach would have been disrespectful and of little perceived value – and trust.
Instead, we have built each program as a discussion of the physical, financial and emotional drivers that people are experiencing, and why each service is there to satisfy these drivers.
Each program is about the individual and their families on their ageing journey, rather than the product.
The structure of each program is four parts: the setup of the why the service exists; introducing people who have been on the journey and taken up the service; their outcomes; and then reconfirmation that it is a valid path.
20 ageing experts
We assembled over 20 experts in their fields to talk about the many factors that contribute to a good later life.
They include clinical and social psychologists, nutritionists, researchers, lawyers, financial experts, cardiologists, podiatrists and even dentists. The content is rich in information, and fast paced. It is engaging.
We recruited Gretel Killeen, the well-recognised comedian and very experienced TV executive, to co-write the script (that ran to 26 versions) and lead the final production. She has done a magnificent job.
20 locations/80 interviews
Over two months we travelled from Hervey Bay in Queensland down to Melbourne, with a full TV crew of a producer, two cameras, sound, lighting and drones. The objective was to have six interviews to achieve one minute of TV.
We had a script that delivers the messages we wanted – but we also wanted the interviewees to be natural in giving their stories, from which we picked the elements that the script required.
We also did not want to speak to any senior executives, but rather the people on the floor, like village managers, care staff and home carers.
Partners
It is a $750,000 exercise, which we at DCM underwrote. We spoke to a number of operators who agreed to partner with us with the joint objective of creating a series of programs that will support all operators, plus help all future customers and their families achieve better ageing outcomes.
Our partners are:
- Aveo
- Australian Unity
- Bolton Clarke
- Catholic Health
- GemLife
- Hometown
- Ingenia
- LDK
- Ryman
- Uniting
While each of the partners has approximately one minute of its content in the TV programs, we did film a minimum of six interviews with their residents and location footage for two of their locations by the two TV crews.
Each partner will receive approximately nine hours of TV-quality footage to use in social media, or approximately two years of content.
Villages.com.au + agedcare101.com.au
We will utilise the programs, the 80 interviews and the 20 specialists as educational material across our two portals villages.com.au and agedcare101.com.au.
This means 1.8 million people who are in the market now exploring retirement living and aged care will be exposed to the best of The Best 30 Years.
Tomorrow we will provide all The SOURCE readers a link to the first program.
Your feedback will be welcomed.