Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC) ‘Band Together’ campaign, developed in partnership with the Australian Football League Victoria (AFLV), was activated across 1,200 Victorian clubs. During TAC’s inaugural Road Safety Round, captains, coaches and players ran out on the field, wearing a blue armband, to call on the community to drive safely. The band’s scannable QR code revealed personal stories told by community members, about losing loved ones on the road. The campaign was launched by various well-known influencers across the sporting community. Each local club encouraged its members to share their stories across social media to further amplify the campaign.

Background

The TAC and the AFLV have shared a partnered sponsorship agreement for over 11 years. With the road toll up 13% compared to the previous year, the TAC needed to continue the conversation in local rural communities, vastly overrepresented in road accidents. Here, community members are four times more likely to die or be seriously injured on regional roads than other drivers. The brief was to target male road users in these rural areas–the most vulnerable to road accidents and fatalities–so that they understood the responsibility they have in driving safely and protecting their families, friends, teammates and the community on the roads. The objective was to galvanise local communities to take a stand against unsafe driving behaviours and understand the importance of looking out for each other on the roads.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

For the TAC’s inaugural Road Safety Round, we gave AFLV captains, community spokespeople and members of the local club a message they could wear. We transformed the traditional black armband –worn as a sign of respect to mark a death in the community– into a new, blue armband. Each wearable armband featured a QR code that people could use to scan, discover and share their personal stories of losing a loved one on the road. Each video created was uploaded to a digital cloud server. Every time a QR code was scanned, a randomised video from the server played, showcasing the many important stories and reasons to drive safely on the roads. People were encouraged to share their stories via social media to broaden the reach and impact of the campaign.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Target Audience: Regional Victorians aged 12+ with a particular focus on younger male drivers. Strategic Approach: With nearly every community affected by road trauma, our strategy was to use the sponsorship to provide a platform for local, regional communities all around the state to start the conversation amongst themselves. The campaign inspired people to talk to each other about the problem in a relevant way, rather than using a traditional fear-based approach. In this case, to better connect to tight-knit regional communities at a grassroots level using social and digital media. Endorsement of the message would come from peers and members of the broader AFLV sporting community. On a weekend dedicated to road safety, we went to every community AFLV club and gave them a message they could wear. A conversation starter in the form of a new armband, a reminder of those who were lost on the roads.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

For the TAC’s inaugural Road Safety Round, we gave AFLV captains, community spokespeople and members a message they could wear. We transformed the traditional black armband –worn as a sign of respect to mark a death in the community– into a new blue armband. The campaign spanned across social, digital, TVC, radio and press with a majority of media spent in regional outlets to target the core audience. Each local AFLV club was targeted with various direct, eDM, social and digital communications to get behind the round, making everyone an advocate for road safety.

List the results (30% of vote)

We engaged every captain, coach, and player to run out on the field during July 16-18 to wear an armband. This action generated PR for the TAC brand and their core objective: to eliminate deaths and serious injury on our roads. Every club became an ambassador for our message. The round saw over 1,200 AFLV clubs and their communities wear the armband. With over 750,000 bands distributed, people began to add their stories, helping transform the campaign into a community hub of road safety advocates. The campaign was seen by 598k people state-wide via ambassadors and 500k people via earned media. In total more we reached more than 1 million people nationally.