How Feros Care is smashing stereotypes in aged care
Imagine you're at Christmas lunch and you notice mum and dad are starting to show signs of ageing. How do you broach that conversation?
In this episode of The CMO Show we meet Russell Woodruffe, head of brand and marketing at Feros Care. Russell’s fusing his private and social sector experience to think differently about the way we tackle some tough conversations around aged care and disability support here in Australia.
Having tough conversations is essential for creating positive change. But let's face it, they're never easy. This is especially true in the aged care and disability sectors where social stigma can quickly get in the way of progress.
“What we see consistently in our market research is stereotypes, preconceived ideas around ageing that we work very hard to try and address,” says Russell Woodruffe, head of brand and marketing at Feros Care.
“We really do speak to the truth that we are not category. There's a lot of providers in the sector delivering aged care services, disability services, and we really pride ourselves on doing that differently.”
Russell’s outside-the-box thinking is not only behind some creative storytelling campaigns at Feros Care – the brand has its own short-film series and a new podcast on the way - but is also expanding the audiences they reach and the conversations they help facilitate in our community.
“We've spent a lot of time looking at the adult child in terms of how they're influencing or understanding how aged care is working,” he said.
“ From a marketing perspective, there's a huge opportunity to help educate this audience. What sort of information are we providing them, how can they access the system, how can they access the sort of care their loved ones need?”
Want to hear more? Hit play and start exploring how Feros Care navigates the challenges and the triumphs of brand and marketing in Australia’s aged care and disability sectors.
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Credits
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The CMO Show production team
Producer – Rian Newman
Audio Engineers – Ed Cheng & Daniel Marr
Got an idea for an upcoming episode or want to be a guest on The CMO Show? We’d love to hear from you: cmoshow@filteredmedia.com.au
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Transcript:
Having tough conversations is essential to creating positive change. But let's face it they’re never easy. This is especially true in the aged care and disability sectors where social stigma can quickly get in the way of progress.
Whether it's advocating for your loved one's care, navigating complex systems of support, or confronting uncomfortable truths about ableism and ageism.
We don't always know where to start and as a result, tend to put off or avoid these difficult conversations altogether. But what if it was possible to make these conversations easier?
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I'm Mark Jones. Hello and thanks for your company here on The CMO Show podcast. My guest today is Russell Woodruffe. He's head of brand and marketing at Feros Care. Now, Russell is a creative marketer. He's got many years of experience working with some big-name brands across the private and social sectors. And I wanted to speak with him because he's using all that experience to think differently about the way we tackle some of the stigmas and the tough conversations around aged care and disability support here in Australia.
And he's certainly got his work cut out for him. Aside from the challenge of getting people to engage with a sensitive subject matter, this is a sector that's very much in the headlines and it's not always for good reasons. Think COVID 19 and the Aged Care Royal Commission. Just two examples of some tough conversations that are going on in this sector.
So let's hear from Russell about how to rethink brand and marketing in the aged care and disability sector and the powerful impact that it's having on conversations within our community.
Mark Jones
How are you, Russell?
Russell Woodruffe
I'm good, thanks. How are you?
Mark Jones
Yeah, good. Thanks for joining me now. Straight out of the gate, I was digging around on your website and you've got this brand, this line. I'm a bit of a sucker for good branding, but I love this line Grow Bold. Let's just start there because it's a pretty energetic statement and I quite like that as a point of difference. Just tell us a bit about Feros Care.
Russell Woodruffe
Yeah, I think the best way to describe Feros Care in comparison to other organisations in the sector is Feros has a brand. And I guess internally, we really do speak to that truth that we are not category. There's a lot of providers in the sector delivering aged care services, disability services, and we really pride ourselves on doing that differently. And we do that by the stories we tell. And going beyond that, I guess our brand in action. So down to the services that we deliver and how we deliver it, we do it differently and we have an ethos of challenging stereotypes and we really lean into that.
Mark Jones
So by comparison, are you saying that other service providers don't have a brand? Because I think there's probably plenty of... I can think of a few church or religious-based organisations that would probably beg to differ.
Russell Woodruffe
I think it's a controversial point I make, but I think being a true brand purist, I see a lot of big brands and they do tell a good brand story, but I think they have to sit in their lane. And I think with Feros Care we don't have any sort of religious grounding, so we can operate a little bit differently. And I think in the true sense of the word, I think what we do and how we do it is more than just a veneer. I think it really does demonstrate at the coal face in how we do things.
Mark Jones
Now one of the reasons we wanted to talk to you is in addition to exploring the aged care and disability sectors, which of course is a shared passion of ours, is just a bit about who you are and some of the things that you have observed in your career. So if we go back a bit, you've come from alcohol and clothing companies, and become a bit of a for-purpose specialist. So what's all that about?
Russell Woodruffe
It's an interesting backstory. I’m very blessed to have worked on big brands at Lion Nathan or Lion, XXXX Gold, Corona, Heineken. So I guess you could say I learned how to build brands and how to tell story. And one thing I realised around that I enjoyed it thoroughly, but most importantly, I realised in that I really wanted to make a difference and use my skills to help people in a different way. So I was looking for opportunity to do that. And then I sort of entered into that through CareFlight at the time, and one of the first things that I did when I went there was rebrand and rename, which I think they were looking for in their candidates. And I just sort of walked out of FMCG and into that opportunity. And then I got to apply what I'd learned to a not-for-profit or a charity.
Mark Jones )
Well, that's good to hear. And I'm always interested to hear people's personal story. Did you have an aha moment or that big awakening that made you realise, "I've got to be doing more with the social sector or purpose-driven organisation"?
Russell Woodruffe
It definitely hit me. I think when you can see the impact that brand and marketing can actually have in people's lives. And one of the things that you experience is you're trying to change people's behaviours, people's perceptions of people in need. And that takes a huge amount of commitment because you just don't have the resources available to you that you're blessed with in working for an organisation like Lion. You've got very minimal budgets, if at all, all at times. And you've got to rely on really compelling storytelling to get attention to draw people into a problem in the world that you are trying to solve and try to make that relevant. And I think the aha moment I had was the power of building and understanding of the minority groups that they need help and why should someone care about that, and there's a real art in that and that's something that really energised me.
Mark Jones
Something that I'm quite passionate on this show is talking about your experience and how we can connect that to some of the programmes, campaigns and executions. Do you want to just give us a quick sketch, a high-level view, what's going on at the moment? And then we can maybe start drilling into some of the lessons that you've learned. Because I think it's been over a year now, isn't it, since you joined the company?
Russell Woodruffe
Yeah it's been a really great first 12 months. And going back to Feros Care and the brand, as a brand professional, purist and a deep study of what brand is, Feros has told some really compelling stories and the way that they tell it I think it drew me in. And I thought, "I want to be a part of this organisation." But what we've focused heavily on is the notion around challenging stereotypes within the category in which we operate in. And I think that created a lot of noise in the past and I think drew a lot of attention to the organisation and what it was trying to achieve because it really did tackle, and it continues to try and tackle, big societal problems. So I guess for older Australians, it's ageing.
And you don't choose aged care, you don't go and buy it. It's not something you want either. We do a lot of our customer research, in a sense, where we get a deep understanding around the pain points. And what was consistently coming through there was a preconceived idea in society around ageing and you were stereotyped and we worked to try to address that. So we've run a number of campaigns that's focused in on how people age and how they can not fit that mould, that they can continue to live, and age in a way that is appropriate to them. And for some older Australians, it is about sort of living a life that continues to challenge the norms of ageing. But for others, it's just being connected to their family or the care that they needed or need in a very, very simple way.
So we try to look at that from a number of different audience profiles. So the campaign that we're been focused on in the last 12 months is that older Australians can continue to forge careers, can continue to contribute, can continue to live their life how they want to live it. And we've been trying to tell that story to challenge stereotypes, to challenge the category that it doesn't have to look like the way that it is. We go beyond trying to talk about our products or services, we want to address the big issues and that's what the last 12 months has been about.
Mark Jones
So what's the split then, just broadly speaking, in terms of the way that you divide up your budget? Whether it's percentage split or the way that you've structured it, just so we can get a quick picture. And then I want to hear about some of this storytelling that you've mentioned.
Russell Woodruffe
So our budget's split in terms of brand building, storytelling, amplification of what we are doing, it's about 40% of our marketing budget. And we rely heavily on PR and media worthiness because we would have particular campaigns that are quite expensive in the way you've got to produce them to a certain standard, and you'll see that in our campaigns. But we rely on PR and media to pick them up and retell those stories. And we do sort of emphasise that, as well as digital we would target across because we've got quite a big footprint all the way from Townsville all the way down to Tasmania. So that makes our budget spread, but we sort of utilise digital where we can. And a lot of the rest of it's about production and our operational budget because there's a big demand.
Mark Jones
The thing that piqued my interest when you were talking about the PR and that local focus, something actually we've seen in our organisation is what we think of as hyper-local PR campaigns and engaging with community media. And in your context, I think that'd be quite interesting because you're in the northern part of the New South Wales coast and up to Coolangatta, where your head office is. So quite clearly, there are plenty of interesting publications and community groups and activities going on in that area. So how do you think about hyper-local campaigns? Because you've also got a very big story as well, so how do you do both?
Russell Woodruffe
It is a challenge. I mean when we build our campaign, we obviously try to cater for big media, national media to pick up, but we also have a localised focus on that. So how we would do it is we tailor. We tailor stories that are specific for that region, so we can talk specifically to that region and the case study, let's say, of the individual that lives within that region. So there's relevancy and we work hard to find those stories within those regions. And then essentially, position them with local media for story and relevancy for their local outlets or publications.
Mark Jones
And what gets the cut through? What's the thing that really makes a difference? And I'm just thinking practically here. The listener might be looking for a couple of quick tips.
Russell Woodruffe
Well, I think the most important thing, it's their story that's going to get the cut through. It's Feros Care or it's RFDS, they're all big brands, but at the end of the day, the public, they don't really care. They care about the people, the individual, so it's their story. So where you get cut through is you've got to put your brand in the backseat, which is against everything that we feel we need to do, brand the hell out of it or make sure that it's Feros Care. And we do come under a pressure internally, within your internal stakeholders that, "Oh, where's the brand?" And when we've run campaigns with the only part you see the brand is the end slide because it's not about us, it's about that story and it's about that individual. But through brand association, that's where the credibility comes from. And that's a hard sell internally sometimes because they feel like everything needs to be branded and we have to give absolute credit to Feros Care or your organisation, but the community and public, they want to see the people and their stories.
Mark Jones
Well, if I jump to this programme you've got, which is called Fearless Films, and I see that you're up to season four. And there are a number of people that are featured in this. And I do note that you've positioned it around, if you like, a reason or an identity that you can engage with. So for example, a person called Emma Lynman is pitched as the entrepreneur. And you've got an artist called Melissa Kirkman who obviously is positioned as the artist. And then another person called Elijah Arranz who is the motivator. So you've got some nice hooks there. We're quite familiar with the idea of these integrated campaigns. Using your example, you'd take one of these people for example, and if they're in a local area, Byron Bay or whatever, you would use them as your case study, that person-centred approach. Is that how you think?
Russell Woodruffe
That's exactly how we think. And what we did do internally, because we all know from a marketing perspective, it's the stories that we tell that define our marketing, but we need to get the stories. And to get the stories, you need to engage those stakeholders in your business that are at the front line, that intersect at the point of connection. And there's always a challenge in getting those stories or at least feeling comfortable with stakeholders that they feel like you're going to do the right thing by them and look after them and protect them. So what we did is by design, we created a Shark Tank, sort of submit your story. We had certain criteria that we were looking at and we did need a hook, and we did look to position the stories around a particular profile, but we don't know what that is yet.
But we just know that we are looking for an angle, a hook. And you do a presentation with your internal stakeholders and you sell them on the storytelling dream and the effectiveness of that kind of storytelling, and you get them inspired and then they go and find those stories for you and you bring them in. And so what we did is the criteria was certain regions. And that Fearless Films was in a number of locations in our footprint. And then we looked at what was really credible and interesting case studies to then build Fearless 4 around. And the particular objective was to tell people with disability that they have so much value to offer workplaces and we wanted to profile people with disability that have forged their own careers fearlessly. And that's the intention and the idea behind Fearless Films, these fearless individuals, but to inspire others to join.
But at the same time we positioned Fearless 4 as well to talk directly to employers to say, "This is the value that people with disability can offer you." And we went another level again and we looked at a film crew that had people who identify as disabled, to not only be a part of the storytelling but also behind a camera. So we had multiple layers of authenticity here that was compelling to tell story around, but also the B roll with people with disability learning how to make film.
Mark Jones
Yeah. No, I think it's really inspiring and I love to see these sorts of examples of such beautifully-executed storytelling with a real heart and integrity to it, as you say. I guess the shadow side that I imagine the listener is thinking about is, "Yeah, but that's hard work." If you think about the traditional case study, and I know these are not case studies per se, but they do fall into that bucket possibly from a marketing or a historical perspective, is that it requires a huge amount of effort from the point of view of your internal teams. And it's great to hear you had a champion there that was really driving it. What's the secret to keeping this moving? Because you've got to overcome a lot of inertia, don't you?
Russell Woodruffe
You do. You really do. And it isn't easy, believe me. And we constantly get challenge internally to as to why we would do it this way. And it does take a lot of energy, like you said, and a lot of commitment from people within the business to help bring it together. And most importantly, I mean you create something of value like this, it's evergreen. It can be used and reused. And we have to do a lot of work in selling that to the business, how it might be used as a particular case study for a tender, or other business development opportunities. So it is a hard road, but you have to continually internally sell that as an asset, as a continual asset that is building momentum. But it gives the business a reason to believe that they are this organisation, that this is their brand in action.
This is us fulfilling our purpose. And you've got to claim that. It's great that you have a service that has an impact at the frontline, but if you can't tell people about it, you can't continue to secure funding, you can't attract people to your organisation to do it. So it is a big job, but it provides you with a platform to demonstrate, as a brand, who you are and you can leverage that.
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Mark Jones
Now just to change a little bit, I'm interested in the broader question in Australia of older Australians, and by that I mean from an awareness point of view, we've got one in six Australians that are over 65 years and there's lots of research, lots of commentary out there about the ageing population. And it's actually a broader issue across the world. It's a lot of countries that are facing this question of how do we care for and support older Australians? And no doubt you've got your own point of view on this. But I'm interested, what have you learned in your role about the most effective ways to engage older Australians and how do you approach that through the marketing lens?
Russell Woodruffe
It's such an interesting conversation because so much is changing and COVID accelerated a lot of that change. And what I'm talking specifically is older Australians' access to aged care. And there's a reform that's in play, and we are soon to know. It's been delayed, but we'll find out some more information in July from the government, what that looks like. So there's a lot of the-
Mark Jones
You're talking about the reforms coming out of the Aged Care Royal Commissioner, aren't you?
Russell Woodruffe
That's correct. Yeah, so I mean the providers are all waiting. But in saying waiting, they're also reading themselves to what's anticipated. And a lot of work that's happening and will happen is how technology is utilised for people to access care, and also book in with the care and the providers' services in which they need and when they need it while they access funding. Now, that's some complexity in that in itself. But the interesting point around what's coming next, as you say, the changing demographic is we've spent a lot of time and there's a lot of conversation around the adult child, in terms of how they're influencing or they're understanding how aged care is working because they're a part of that conversation.
So in terms of marketing, is the end user, being the older Australian, absolutely, that's the end user. But more often than not in terms of decision making, the adult child has a huge influence on that. Not the final decision maker, but definitely the information gatherer and providing information to their mother or their father around potential providers and what they need. And the thing that we've found as well is just how difficult that conversation is. It's a difficult conversation to have with your mum and dad that, "You're getting older." And some of the marketing activity we've had recent success was over Christmas, a campaign.
So you're at Christmas lunch and you notice that mom and dad's starting to show signs of ageing. How do you have that conversation? So I think in terms of a marketing perspective, there's a huge job there to help educate the adult child, but also the end user, so our older Australians who are starting to look at care. And what sort of information are you providing them to, how to access the system, how to access that sort of care that they need? And I think all providers at the moment are looking at how they can build their seamless technology to help that at the moment.
Mark Jones
Yep, I'm one of those adult children, right? Both my in-laws and my own parents. And as you were speaking there, I was just reflecting on some of the conversations that I've had. And it's a great reminder from a marketing perspective, it actually doesn't matter which sector you are in, it's the question of how influential are the influencers in the purchasing decision?
Russell Woodruffe
100%.
Mark Jones
And obviously, what I'm hearing here is they're quite influential, at least I'd like to think I am, to use myself as a case study. What does it take to really do a good, quote, unquote, influencer campaign? Different type of influencer, not social.
Russell Woodruffe
I'll tell you, there's no silver bullet. But what we are doing, we are launching a new podcast. It's an iteration of the podcast that we've started. And we're going to start addressing some of the big topics. So we are going to invite people to begin that conversation. One of the topics that we're looking at is how do you have that conversation with your mum or dad? What's some of the barriers that are there? We are talking about really complex individual situations, where the adult child cares deeply for their parents and their welfare, but the older Australian, they're living this independent life and they don't necessarily... are ready for that conversation. So in terms of how we are tackling it, we are trying to tackle some of those big topics, and try to start the conversation. And then from that, we'll try to build tools and educational pieces and tips and tricks as to how to tackle that.
And like I said, we had a small trial over Christmas, we had great success. We created a sort of information hub on our website, where we drew the conversation out for any more information on how to tackle this, go here, and here's some tips and tricks to help tackle that. So we really are trying to lean into your audience's problem that they're trying to solve. No one wants aged care, no one wants to have a conversation with their mum and dad about their ageing. And maybe, just maybe they could get some help around the house, help with some gardening. That's where they typically start. Or it could be more acute memory loss, so how do you do that? And these are big things, but I think some initiatives we are doing, so we are trying to, like a podcast form, have those conversations.
Mark Jones
Yeah, that's great. I mean you say no one wants aged care, but I think no one wants it till they need it.
Russell Woodruffe
Absolutely.
Mark Jones
And then suddenly you want it.
Russell Woodruffe
Absolutely.
Mark Jones
Well, in closing, what's on the horizon for you? What's the thing that's really getting you up in the morning? Where do you want to take the organisation?
Russell Woodruffe
Do you know, right now, and this is not just in the sector, this is broader than that, is workforce. We can't deliver the care unless we have the workforce. And what is keeping me very motivated is how can we attract talent or be a part of that attraction piece to get skilled people outside the sector to work in aged care because it's been a difficult place to be, and COVID I think made things more difficult. So right now we've about to launch a new iteration of Fearless Films, looking at smashing stereotypes, to help have conversation and story around people working within the industry already that people don't know that these people are there and they're still doing the best care possible in an industry, in a sector that's been under a lot of pressure.
So what what's coming next for us, which is important, is building workforce. And those who build workforce will win, essentially. So from a brand perspective and a messaging perspective, that's what our focus is.
Mark Jones:
Well, with that in mind, I think it's a good place to stop for the moment. I'm encouraged by your story. There's a real energy around the way that you are approaching the sectors in which you operate. And I particularly like the hyper-local focus combined with this big narrative, this grand narrative of doing more, achieving your dreams and that people-centric approach to the work that you do. So it's really encouraging and I'm taking a lot away. So Russell Woodruffe, thank you so much for being our guest today on The CMO Show, and all the best with the Feros Care story.
Russell Woodruffe
Thank you. Appreciate it.
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Thank you to Russell from Ferros Care. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the challenges and the triumphs of brand and marketing in the aged care and disability sectors in Australia.
If you're not living in this world day in and day out, it's so easy to put a lot of these issues to one side. But as we learned from this conversation with Russell, it's something we all need to be invested in. And for me, it was really great to hear some of the creative, outside of the box campaigns happening at Ferros Care to build that awareness and investment and create an impact on a national and community level.
My name's Mark Jones. It's been great to have your company and I'll see you in a fortnight for the next episode of The CMO Show.