Road safety

Every so often, an agency comes up with a creative treatment that so simplistically nails the brief that the campaign needs and bears no explanation. This is one of those. The message is this. We’re all tired these days. And that might affect our driving. The simplest execution, the print ad needed just an image and a small number of words to make the point.

I was particularly fascinated at the insights that led to this campaign. Campaigns warning drivers of fatigue have been a mainstay of road safety advertising for years and the stop, revive, survive programme is part of the Aussie vernacular. But over the years, we’d all started to see fatigue as an issue for people on road trips, or truck drivers. Unfortunately at the same time, we all started working longer hours and, critically, are more likely to be tired when we get in the car. Even on a trip home after a long day’s work.

Great advertising often comes out of great insights and this is one. Great work.

Here’s what the team at Transport for NSW had to say:

Fatigue accounts for around 15-20% of fatalities and 8% of injuries each year but is often not acknowledged by the public as a major road safety issue. This campaign now highlights the seriousness of fatigue. To create long term behavioural change, the campaign provides drivers with self evaluation tools to measure how tired they are and provide clear actions if the results show they are fatigued. Importantly, the campaign shifts focus to before drivers get behind the wheel, as well as during their drive.

Creative Agency: George Patterson

Target audience:

Primary: Males aged 17-49 Secondary: Males aged 50+

Tertiary: Females

Campaign execution:The campaign is built on the idea “Don’t Trust Your Tired Self”. It is fully integrated and consists of a 30 second television advertisement, video on demand, YouTube pre-roll, radio advertisements, ambient media, online display, search, social and mobile, using consistent messaging and imagery across all the media channels.

Timing:December 2013 – April 2014. Crash statistics show a greater risk of fatigue-related crashes during holiday periods but fatigue-related crashes happen all year round. The launch aligns with Christmas school holidays as drivers tend to drive longer distances to visit family or holiday.

Evaluation: As part of the campaign development, research was conducted in order to establish benchmarks around attitudes and behaviours. Research will be repeated using the same methodology at the end of the advertising to track changes.

Website: www.testyourtiredself.com.au

Thanks to advertising.nsw.gov.au