Brief Explanation

This submission will explain how an advertising campaign had a profound impact on the community and contributed to a record low road toll in the Australian state of Victoria. The campaign focused on one key road safety issue; to raise awareness of speed as a major contributor to road trauma and get speeders to slow down as a means of reducing the annual road toll. The campaign aimed to demonstrate how many peoples’ lives are affected by one single act of speeding; a ripple effect that is created in the immediate community by the tragic loss of life due to unnecessary road trauma. It forms part of an ongoing road safety strategy that has seen the TAC employ different approaches to get the ‘slow down’ message across to a sometimes apathetic motoring public. Throughout the world, young drivers are the biggest risk on the roads. And more often than not, excessive speed is the cause of crashes that so often result in death. This campaign spoke to these young people in a completely new and original way. Luke Robinson was 19 when he died in March 2010 as a result of driving too fast. To make young drivers realise how many people are profoundly affected by such a moment of recklessness, Luke’s family and friends agreed to participate in this campaign which launched four months after his death. An unprecedented 26 testimonial commercials went to air on television and simultaneously online over a two week period, each alluding to a personal perspective on the road tragedy. The express purpose was to create intrigue as to what they were all about and how they were connected. As they rolled out, viewers started to piece the stories together, when on the night of the highest rating TV reality show finale, they came together to form a three-minute mega-commercial. The raw emotion of the testimonials generated extensive commentary on TV, radio talkback and in newspaper editorials and online forums, equating to over $1.5 million worth of free media. Most important, the campaign effectively influenced driving behaviour. It had a demonstrable, quantifiable impact on self-recorded speeding and contributed to a record low annual toll; the ultimate achievement for any road safety campaign. The ‘Ripple Effect' campaign has left an indelible impression on the community that will live long after the campaign has subsided, a rare achievement for an advertising campaign.