- Umm...ergency for SA Health
- Advertising
- Production
- Graphic Design
- Strategy
South Australia’s health system had been at breaking point. Emergency departments were over capacity, with patients sitting ‘ramped’ in ambulances outside hospitals, in turn delaying these ambulances from responding to other calls. It’s not just a serious problem. It’s a matter of life or death.
Against this backdrop, the uncomfortable truth is that not everyone who presents at an emergency department truly needs one. According to SA Health’s own data, in 2023 over one-third (34.4%) of South Australian emergency department presentations were not clinically categorised as requiring emergency care.
While emergency departments are for everyone, SA Health’s data showed 18-34 year olds representing the highest proportion of emergency department presentations. This audience became our focus.
Research conducted with the target audience for the campaign showed that 94% understood that emergency departments are just for emergencies. But they were showing up anyway.
Our insight, drawn from the campaign research, was that uncertainty drives this behaviour. Most people aren’t health professionals, and just aren’t sure what constitutes an emergency. For many people, when you —or a loved one— are unwell or injured, it can be hard to know what to do.
Should you go to an emergency department? Take a Panadol? Try getting into a GP? What other options are there? People just aren’t sure.
Through research conducted for the campaign, it also became clear there’s a fear of underestimating what could be an emergency, and a feeling of not wanting to gamble on your health, or the health of a loved one.
This means in ‘maybe’ situations, it’s common for people to play it safe and visit an emergency department just in case.
This all led to the big idea: “Umm…ergency”
We all know what to do in a true life-or-death emergency. It’s the scary in-between situations that are the problem. Our strategy was to identify that feeling of uncertainty; being unwell and unsure what to do. We branded it, and then showed people exactly what to do next: call Healthdirect, where a registered nurse triages symptoms and can direct you to the most appropriate care, whether that’s an emergency department, urgent care service, 24/7 pharmacy, GP, or simply your own bed for a good night’s sleep.
For the campaign’s hero TVC and digital video executions (including for social media), we produced fast-paced ads with “Umm-umm-umm-umm” set to the tune of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. These showed quick-cut scenes of common ‘Umm… ergency’ situations, complete with blood, phlegm and vomit. They were perfect for digital placements, with unheard of completion rates.
Locally impacting. Nationally awarded and debated.
In a world where most ads are ignored, this cut through. At launch, it led the state's news cycle, lit up talkback radio, trended on social media — and later featured on ABC’s Gruen.
It wasn’t all positive, with Ad Standards receiving over a dozen complaints about the campaign’s unashamedly graphic content (all of which were dismissed), and debate followed about the role demand management campaigns play in public health. But the results were overwhelming.
The campaign exceeded its target by 628%, with 19,742 calls made to Healthdirect in 6 weeks. It delivered a 9.55x return on investment through direct savings to the health system by reducing avoidable emergency department presentations. But more than that, it helped to save lives.
The campaign’s success was externally validated recently, too. It picked up both a Bronze Effie in the “Small Budget” category and a gold for “Best State” at the 2025 Effie Awards, which are focused on one thing and one thing only: effectiveness.