Consent Can’t Wait
Consent is often seen as a problem to be solved. The reality is that consent is part of a set of skills you can learn to have healthy sexual relationships.
Consent Can’t Wait was the Australian Government’s first sexual consent awareness campaign, for which DCPR managed mainstream PR. In market between May 2024 and May 2025, the campaign targeted adult influencers of young people aged 10 to 17 years to encourage them to learn about consent, normalise consent conversations, and foster respectful relationships with young people in their lives.
Approach
The PR task was to generate mass awareness for the issue of consent in an accessible and conversational way, in alignment with the campaign creative and output from multicultural and First Nations PR suppliers. Our approach was structured around four key pillars:
- Asset development – end to end development of two hero conversation guides, a digital stakeholder kit, and omni-channel video content.
- Ambassador engagement – attraction of four high profile experts to use for media interview and for social amplification of campaign assets. Our generous and dedicated ambassadors were: Chanel Contos, Founder or Teach Us Consent; Daniel Principe, Educator and Youth Advocate; Chantelle Otten, Psycho-sexologist; and Dr Justin Coulson, Parenting Expert.
- Media outreach – an ambassador-led earned strategy, targeting national, high-reach outlets.
- Community outreach – social community moderation as well as instructional issue-based videos for deeper understanding.
Outcome
The Consent Can’t Wait campaign achieved significant reach and impact across multiple PR channels, including:
- 51 million estimated media impressions through 147 pieces of coverage, multiple national syndications and ambassador-led features.
- 36,300+ impressions of the online campaign assets, with strong engagement in conversation guide downloads and community kit views.
- 358,093 impressions of the ambassador campaign videos, with high watch times and social interactions, particularly on Instagram.
- 17,648 views of instructional webisodes for families
- Over 3,600 comments moderated on Departmental Facebook page.
The campaign successfully positioned consent.gov.au as a trusted resource, empowered adult influencers to initiate consent conversations, and laid a strong foundation for future phases. Despite challenges such as media fatigue and divisive public sentiment, the campaign demonstrated the power of strategic PR, expert voices, and inclusive messaging in driving cultural change.
