The challenge

In 2003 more than 1,400 teenagers were seriously injured on the roads and 57 were killed.

The trouble that teenagers think they know how to cross the road, they know the green cross code and don’t want to be lectured about something as mundane as road safety.

As a subject it’s way down their priorities below exams, friendships, relationships, parents, sex and drugs. Only 4% rate it as a major concern.

The marketing challenge was to find a way to get into their lives and make a connection that can be used get the road safety message across.

Research shows that while teens may make a play of crossing the road carefully, with so many other things on their minds they are not really paying attention.

The TV solution

TV was used to bring the consequences of cross the road on autopilot to life. To make it more real the execution was filmed entirely on a mobile phone to give it more immediacy and also make it look as if an accident had been filmed by a one of a group of friends.

Real teenagers were given phones and asked to film genuine road-side behaviour and this was used for the first 20 seconds of the ad. The final 10-seconds showed the chilling conclusion giving the Department of Transport a totally authentic film that could speak to teens in their own language.

The ad was launched virally on a bespoke website – www.notlooking.co.uk – and for the first week it was shown unbranded to make it more likely to be forwarded.

After a week online, the ad was shown on TV in the first episode of the new series of X-Factor on ITV 1 before using Channel 4 and satellite stations.

The ad has now been used on TV in three bursts, in August 2005, January 2006 and March 2006. It has also been show in cinemas against teen films such as Doom and Final Destination 3.

Other media activity includes print ads and 6-sheets located close to secondary schools in major cities have also featured on the schedule.

Results

It is too early to see any impact on the number of injuries for 2005 but the research indicates that the message has been absorbed.

A study in September 2005 after the first wave of advertising found that spontaneous recall was 52%, with prompted recall hitting 62%.

Among teens who had seen the film nine out of 10 said it make them think carefully about being careful on the roads or made them realise that it could happen to them.

Accidents were also found to have risen up the hierarchy of concerns after the campaign, with a third of teens saying that accidents on the roads were a main danger to teens compared to a quarter before the ads ran.

The campaign also attracted a lot of PR with coverage on the major news channels and in the newspapers.

"Using TV enabled us to target teens and communicate a key safety message in way that they could relate to. The use of mobile phone images contrasted with the slick production values of programmes and other ads enabled the message to really stand out and helped us talk to this key group in the right tone of voice."
Gemma Regniez, Head of Teen and Child Publicity, Department for Transport