Beforehand, the crash statistics in Tasmania had shown an alarming spike in serious injuries and deaths amongst two specific demographics - younger people and also rural drivers. Here’s what we created.
Our insight We knew that both these key audience groups were by nature and definition, risk-takers, and impervious to authoritative messages saying, ‘Don’t do (something)’. The first subgroup need to take risks as a ‘right of passage’. And the second subgroup have been ‘bush bashing since they were kids’. Quality independent research also revealed there was very little engagement with previous road safety campaigns.
Prior to being awarded the Road Safety account, we wrote of our strategy; “Road safety has become a ‘secondary thing’; we assume nothing is going to go wrong. We want to shake this assumption loose and plant deeply a seed of doubt that can spread into every road-user’s daily life”.
How did things change?
Research continues to reveal how the Tasmanian public find the campaign highly relevant to their lives, sighting high incidence of the messages changing the way they drive.”
Tasmania has made significant progress when it comes to reducing road trauma. During the period covered by the first Tasmanian Road Safety Strategy (2002-2006), there was a 25% decrease in serious injuries. This is in spite of a 15% increase in the number of vehicles on Tasmanian roads."
- There was a 25% decrease in serious road injuries between 2002 and 2006
- 75% of Tasmanian drivers said ‘just like that’ changed their driving
- Enabled the first ever fatality-free Christmas holiday period
- Only Tasmanian campaign to be used by other state jurisdictions including TAC Victoria
Created as a one minute music video, ‘You Blew It’ was so popular that radio stations received calls inquiring whether the song in the commercial was available to the public. The song was written and produced by SmithAssociates and the video filmed, directed and produced by SmithAssociates.
