Results and Effectiveness

Maori took ownership, shared and endorsed the film. From a starting audience of just 15,000, ‘Blazed’ had 2.6m+ views, 101,000+ FB shares, Likes, tweets, favorites and retweets. Earned media was 42x higher than the investment in the project. Word of mouth was positive, with quotes like: “Funny as, but message is RIGHT! See what our kids think of us/how they imitate us and the danger we put them in...Shit just got REAL!” We’ve a long way to go to reduce drug driving on our roads. The careful creation and placement of 'Blazed' has taken us one step closer.

Creative Execution

We formed a collaborative partnership with the Māori audience's favourite TV channel ; Māori TV. They became the main messenger – not the Government. We then worked together to create a short film called ‘Blazed’. This focused on children discussing their dad's stoned driving behaviour in a humorous fashion. Māori TV premiered ‘Blazed’ during one of the channel’s most popular peak shows ‘ Homai Te Pakipaki’. It was introduced via the hosts, within the live show. No end-line, no call to action, not an advert to be tuned out. Just a very emotive short film. It only ran on-air once. The audience was told they could only see it again on the show’s YouTube page, thereby re-enforcing the legitimacy of the message ownership. In the weeks post-premiere Maori TV presenters and newscasters continued to fuel conversation in TV and on-line, helping guide the virality of the film.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) had one goal – to make Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) reconsider how safe it is to smoke marijuana and drive. After alcohol, marijuana is the most common drug found in dead drivers, yet 32% of Maori thought it was okay to drive ‘stoned’. Our research revealed a key insight: many Maori men are proud fathers who want their kids to look up to them. They also think their kids don’t recognise their stoned behaviour, despite often driving stoned with them in the car. This audience is likely to dismiss a prohibitionist anti-drugs message. It's also likely to be turned-off by a traditional television advertisement, especially one coming from the goverment. Our strategy was therefore to use content integration, telling a believable story, to make the message by Maori for Maori, and in their most trusted media.