Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The Transport Accident Commission (TAC’s) ‘Band Together’ campaign, developed in partnership with Australian Football League Victoria (AFLV), was activated across 1,200 Victorian clubs. The TAC’s inaugural Road Safety Round saw captains, coaches and players run out on the field, wearing a blue armband, calling on the community to drive safely. The band’s scannable QR code showed personal stories from the public about losing loved ones on the road. The campaign was kicked off by well-known influencers across the sporting community with each local club encouraging individual members to participate and share their stories across social to further amplify.

Background

The TAC and 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 understand 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 (30% of vote)

For the TAC’s inaugural Road Safety Round, we gave AFLV captains, community spokespeople and members of the local AFLV 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 shared 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. To better connect to tight-knit regional communities, we targeted them at a grassroots level. Endorsement of the message came 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 (20% of vote)

We engaged every local AFLV club to wear an armband on the field during the Road Safety Round. Campaign spokespeople like Brett Ratten called on the community to wear the armband and spread the message, to reduce road trauma on our roads. Wearable armbands were downloaded off the TAC website and printed to wear in the community. With the notion that no one is immune to road trauma, community members were encouraged to explore the ever-growing number of personal stories and record, share and wear their own, using the armband’s QR code. We asked the community to share and tag their stories with the hashtag #bandtogether on Instagram, Facebook etc. We invited football clubs, police stations and news media organisations to back this campaign by wearing the message. Local AFLV clubs were targeted with direct and eDM communications, encouraging everyone to get behind the round, as advocates 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.