The Beep

Smoke alarms save lives, yet our annual consumer survey shows an alarming rate of the public failing to test their smoke alarms. Only 13% of those who have smoke alarms installed in their homes have tested them in the past month to ensure it was working. One in five (19%) admit to last testing them over a year ago, with some saying they never tested them at all. People are complacent when it comes to mundane tasks such as checking a smoke alarm and that familiar low-battery “chirp” has become background noise.

“Get ready with me” videos are still having their moment on TikTok and Instagram livestreams, with a huge 22.7 million posts on TikTok alone using the hashtag #GRWM. We hijacked this familiar format, to hook people in without asking them to change their usual social habits. We chose to lead the campaign with a video certain to stop people mid doom-scroll.

Inspired by our own FYPs (For You Pages on TikTok) and the countless videos where that familiar chirp sits unnoticed by the creator in the background - we saw an opportunity to turn a passive annoyance into something that triggers action.

By embedding a life-saving message inside a format people already know and trust, we turned an ignored signal into a trigger for action. The campaign targeted a large demographic, getting millions of eyes on the messaging and forcing people to pay attention through a solid creative strategy.