The Campaign

Branded Content is on the rise in Australia but it is something that can be hit and miss and truly engaging and effective branded content is still a rare thing.

Results

Our task was to reduce preventable deaths and accidents in young Melbournians. But most of the behaviours that lead to rail related accidents were 100% avoidable – caused by people behaving irresponsibly or the result of moments of stupidity. Running on the tracks, driving around barriers because they couldn’t be bothered waiting, not paying attention to where they were walking. Simply dumb. But young people hate being told what to do. So the strategy was simple. Turn a message that young people need to hear, into a message they want to hear. The campaign centered around the song, Dumb Ways to Die, and our approach was to promote the song as any other song would be promoted. Ours was a four-part strategy: 1. TREAT THIS AS ENTERTAINMENT, NOT ADVERTISING As such, we launched the song like a music promoter would. To do this we used both traditional (Radio, TV, Cinema, Posters, Station Ambient) and social media (Sound Cloud, Tumblr and Instagram) to drive traffic. 2. AMPLIFY THROUGH THE POWER OF PR AND SOCIAL Extend the reach of the campaign through social media and traditional PR beyond the initial $300K campaign. 3. ASK FOR A COMMITMENT Invite our target group after watching the video to pledge their commitment to being safe around trains by visiting our campaign site or interact with our in station posters.

Our strategy was to turn our message about rail safety that no one wanted listen to, into a piece of entertainment that people actively sought out, shared and committed to. Embracing the importance of group dynamics within the target market, we chose to avoid the typical patronising voice of authority and create something we hoped people would genuinely want to share. The campaign centered around the song, Dumb Ways to Die, and our approach was to promote the song as any other song would be promoted.

Our goals were straightforward. Our results phenomenal. 1. INCREASE PUBLIC AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT WITH RAIL SAFETY - More the 55 million views on YouTube - Charted on iTunes in 28 countries selling 100,000 copies - 120,000 free downloads on Soundcloud - 50% campaign recall amongst core target market - 34% of core target said they would be safer around trains because of the campaign. 2. GET 10,000 MELBOURNIANS TO COMMIT TO BE SAFE AROUND TRAINS In the first 4 months over 44,000 Melbournians pledged “not to do dumb things around trains”. Another million Australians have pledged to be safe through the mobile game. 3. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF NEAR MISSES AND ACCIDENTS AROUND TRAINS 20% reduction in rail accidents in the first 3 months.