DUMB WAYS TO DIE

Grand Prix
TitleDUMB WAYS TO DIE
BrandMETRO TRAINS
Product / ServiceMETRO TRAINS
EntrantMcCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Advertising Agency McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Adrian Mills Mccann Melbourne Planner
Alec Hussain Mccann Melbourne Account Manager
Chloe Alsop Mccann Melbourne Advertiser's Supervisor
Adrian Mills Mccann Melbourne Account Supervisor
Cinnamon Darval Mccann Melbourne Agency Producer
Mark Bradley Mccann Melbourne Agency Producer
Pat Baron Mccann Melbourne Typographer
Julian Frost Mccann Melbourne Illustrator
Pat Baron Mccann Melbourne Art Director
John Mescall Mccann Melbourne Copywriter
Pat Baron Mccann Melbourne Creative Director
John Mescall Mccann Melbourne Executive Creative Director

The Campaign

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. We created a song, and launched it through the completed suite of paid, owned and earned channels. Radio. Youtube. TV. PR. Social Media. Press. Outdoor. We turned iTunes and Soundcloud into media vehicles. Additionally, we created an App and Children's book to extend engagement with the campaign.

Success of the Campaign

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 - App downloads over 14 Million - 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.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

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. 4. EXTEND ENGAGEMENT We released Dumb Ways to Die the game. It went to number 1 in the free app charts in 17 countries including the USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada & New Zealand.