The Road Safety Commission, with the help of The Brand Agency, has targeted all Western Australian road users in a campaign that prompts them to make a safe journey.
The work features five 30 second spots for each of the two featured households. The first house belongs to an everyday family; the other, a group of young housemates.
Each 30 second spot joins a respective household as they discuss their plans for the day before leaving to embark on their everyday journey using different modes of transport. These realistic scenes are interrupted by an emotional 'premonition' from a concerned and grieving family member or loved one, before snapping back to everyday reality.
The campaign is live across TV, BOD, Cinema, Audio, 00H, Digital & Social media platforms.
Hannah Muirhead, head of brand strategy at The Brand Agency, and Dean Hunt, executive creative director also at The Brand Agency shared with AdNews insight into the creation of the work.
Dean Hunt shared insight as to how the Brand Agency went about making this campaign stand out against other road safety campaigns: “We wanted a campaign based on facts. Something authentic. Data not creative conjecture.
“To do this we deliberately avoided the temptation to create dramatic crash scenes or exaggerated visual trickery. Instead, we featured everyday scenarios that we all might recognise in our own homes. It sounds dull, but it fits perfectly with the idea of getting people to consider their own everyday journeys as potentially dangerous.
“No one plans a crash. But who plans NOT to? We wanted a campaign that made people think about their behaviours before they embark on every excursion. To think about making every journey safe.
“You may notice that each spot ends with a loved-one leaving through the door. We wanted people to see our ads as close to the time they might be leaving their own homes for their own daily journeys. We wanted them to see themselves on the screen, doing what they were doing at the time.
“While avoiding shock tactics (as we know they can backfire) we did want a stark, emotional moment, to jolt people out of their everyday lives, with a reminder of just what could happen each time you leave the house.
“These ‘premonitions’ were based on the emotions many families have had to deal with as result of life-changing crashes in Western Australia. The memories of a loved one leaving the house for the last time.”
Hannah Murihead discussed the campaign brief: “The WA State government had set an ambitious target to reduce road fatalities and severe injuries to zero by 2050. This target requires all of us to make sure we play our part on the roads to ensure deaths and serious injuries on the road don’t happen.
“But early on, we recognised that to the everyday Western Australian, this vision is somewhat unachievable because many road users see deaths as an inevitable ‘toll’ we must pay for using the roads.
“This may be because of the view that road crashes are always caused by illegal road behaviours. In other words, for the bulk of Western Australians who follow the rules, they felt that road safety was an issue that doesn’t really apply to them: they don’t hoon or drink drive. In reality, 70% of road crashes are not actually caused by illegal activity. They happen during everyday journeys when people are going about their day.
“When we drive consciously – alert, plan to leave on time, courteously and respectfully, these crashes can be reduced. So, while no one plans a crash, we can plan not to crash every time we get behind the wheel.
“The brief emerged from this need: we needed to get everyday Western Australian road users – apathetic about road safety - to think about making the journey safer for themselves and those around them, every time they get behind the wheel on their everyday journeys.”
Hunt discussed the creative strategies harnessed to reach the 2023 audience:
“The Everyday Journeys campaign was data-led from the very start – even before a script was written. The idea itself, featuring the two households shown, and the modes of transport and behaviours represented in each daily spot, directly reflected crash data supplied by The Road Safety Commission.
“We wanted to create a deeper connection with the audience in two ways. The creative idea and production, and the use of media and timing to best reach our audience.
“With the creative, we’d mapped out the five daily ads for each household. This included: what they might be doing, what mode of transport they would use, and what behaviour, mindset or scenario could result in a life-changing crash. Again, all this directly represented the data provided over the last couple of years.
“With the media, we looked to connect with our audience in a couple of ways for better impact. The scenario, the message and timing. For example, we ran the school drop-off spot, early on weekday mornings, the cycling spot on Sunday mornings and the late drive spot in the evening.
“Our matching luggage: different-shaped bags’ approach to creative and media, gives us great consistency (message salience) while also allowing our creative to best twist and turn according to the medium or message.
“A simplified example would be our ‘Facetime’ style phone calls in our social films as opposed to a cutdown of the TV films. Same message, same talent, twisted to best suit the medium. While our 60” cinema spot combined the two households to create a more ‘dramatic’ feel for a medium where we couldn’t use the daily ads approach like we could with our TV.
“We believe this combination of data, creative and dynamic media will better connect with today’s audiences that are becoming increasingly difficult to button down and connect with.”
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