Are you up to the challenge?
There’s a new viral social media challenge coming your way – the Escape My House Challenge!
From 21 February our new fire safety campaign launches, and this one focuses on trying to get younger people, in particular, to understand the need for a formal 3-Step-Escape Plan and create and practise their own with housemates and whānau.
To do this, we’re enlisting the help of some Kiwi social media stars to participate in our Escape My House Challenge and share the results with their thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram. We’re using these channels as they are most effective at reaching our target audience and are well known for their challenges.
So, what’s the challenge?
We all know escaping your house during a fire is not as simple as just ‘walking out the door’, but unfortunately this is what many Kiwis think. Our challenge aims to, well, challenge that assumption and show just how tricky it can be to make it out safely, in under three minutes.
To recreate the disorientation and lack of vision in a real housefire, our social media celebrities will be blindfolded and spun around before they attempt to find their way out of their house. To make it as realistic as possible, they’ll have to contend with some closed doors, and potentially pick up family members who need their assistance (such as young children) on the way. Finally, they have to make it to their designated meeting point.
They’ll film themselves, or get a buddy to film them, attempting the challenge and then share the results on their social media using the hashtag #EscapeMyHouseChallenge, challenging others to take part.
To reach a wider audience with our challenge, our media team are in discussion with Seven Sharp to launch the challenge during the week of 21 February (fingers crossed!).
Keen to get involved?
If you think you’re up for the challenge, we’d love for you to get involved.
Test yourself and encourage your friends and whānau to give it a go as well. Detailed instructions for participating and sharing your challenge on social media (if you’re happy to do so) can be found below:
Creating the challenge
- Blindfold yourself in a closed off room and spin around until you’re disorientated.
- If you have TikTok, find the right music track, hit record and get yourself and anyone who may need help to the first way out before the track ends. If you’re not using TikTok, just use your regular phone video function and set a timer for one minute.
- Escape your house (remember to get down low!) and gather at your outside meeting place
- Post the challenge to TikTok with #EscapeMyHouseChallenge and encourage your followers to test themselves, and head over to www.escapemyhouse.co.nz to make a 3-Step-Escape Plan. Note, technical instructions, including how to find the correct song, can be found here [PDF, 575 KB].
If you would like to do the challenge but are not on TikTok, we are happy to edit your challenge video for you and you can then share it on other social media.
If you have any questions or need extra help, contact communications@fireandemergency.nz