THINK! Tean Road Safety
This campaign has completely transformed how we communicate with this challenging audience and put teen road safety firmly back on the agenda.
David Murphy, Head of Marketing, Department for Transport.
Research showed that death was simply too remote a concept for many teens. What they could relate to, however, was the loss of a friend or an event that would alter the fragile dynamics of their friendship groups.
Friends are teens’ protection against an outside world that doesn’t understand them. This is where they feel safe, where they discuss the things important to them, and where their opinions are formed. Our insight was that to be credible and really get their attention, friendship groups would not only have to be at the heart of the creative message but also the hub of distribution for that message.
We would learn to talk the teen language. Teens would own the campaign, distribute it and endorse it and give it a power that paid-for media could never match.
The first step was to create some content. We asked real teenagers to script and shoot a 30” film using their medium of choice, the mobile phone. It showed a group larking about by the road before one tries to cross without paying attention – with tragic consequences.
We created a website www.notlooking.co.uk to seed an unbranded version of this film prior to its TV launch, allowing teens to send it to their friends virally and without the stigma of government branding.
A week later the branded version of the film was shown in selected teen-focused content – films and shows that would be talked about in their friendship groups. Films such as Doom and Final Destination 3 at the cinema and TV shows such as Dirty Sanchez and Pimp My Ride were used, alongside posters located close to secondary schools. The campaign was also the first to advertise around and within youth clubs, giving the message a presence in more urban council-run clubs.