Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission (TAC) is reviewing its creative agency of record.
The first step of the multi-stage tender process, being an expression of interest (EOI), closes on 3 August.
TAC and its current agency Clemenger Melbourne made global headlines and scored countless awards for its unique Meet Graham campaign.
Royal Melbourne Hospital trauma surgeon Christian Kenfield and Monash University Accident Research Centre crash investigator David Logan worked with Melbourne sculptor Patricia Piccinini to develop Graham – an unusual looking lump of flesh designed with bodily features that could be present if human beings evolved to survive car crashes.
Despite the critical claim, being a government agency it may statutory procedure to put the business out to tender. AdNews has approached TAC for further details.
“The TAC is seeking a full service advertising agency as a strategic partner to ensure that effective strategic insights inform world-class advertising and the TAC's road safety behavioural change marketing campaigns,” the tender document stated.
The TAC is no stranger to 'shock and awe' in advertising. The past 25 years of its road safety ads have included graphic images of crashes and accidents, designed to jolt the public into behaving better on Victoria's roads.
However, it's the sculpture-turned-conversation piece, Graham, that created major local and global waves. Graham also toured around the state as part of an educational exhibition and school curriculums were developed alongside it for school groups.
It also formed the basis of video content and more traditional ads, but the educational aspect was at the core.
Speaking to AdNews around the launch of Graham in 2016, TAC senior manager road safety, Samantha Cockfield said: “We initially briefed this idea as a mass media campaign. During the market research phase we had a range of TV scripts developed and we realised a 30- to 60-second TV ad was not going to get the complexity of this issue across to the community.
“I still remember the day the idea for Graham was presented to me – I thought this will work because it was so simple. The issue for us was if it wasn't a traditional mass media campaign, could we get enough eyes on it?
“But, we just had to believe in the brilliance of the idea. There were a lot of tense moments in terms of being a government client, but the idea was so good, we couldn’t not go there.”
At Cannes Lions last year Clems Melbourne pulled in 56 awards in total, including two Grand Prix for TAC Meet Graham.
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