Category: Titanium and Integrated
Advertiser: NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORT AGENCY
Product/Service: ROAD SAFETY
Agency: CLEMENGER BBDO
Date of First Appearance: Aug 14 2010
Executive Creative Director: Philip Andrew (Clemenger BBDO)
Creative Director: Paul Nagy (Clemenger BBDO)
Copywriter: Dan Moth (Clemenger BBDO)
Art Director: Ronojoy Ghosh (Clemenger BBDO)
Account Director: Linda Major (Clemenger BBDO)
Producer: Antonia Bale
Theatre Director: Tim Spite (SEEyD)
Theatre Company: Georgina Otto (SEEyD)
Media placement: Theatre Ad - Downstage Theatre, Wellington - 14 August 2010
Describe the campaign/entry
We created a way to make drivers appreciate the dangers of fatigue, more deeply than any medium had before. For the first time, we took a road safety message into the medium of theatre. The issue we were tackling was driver fatigue, which strikes without warning. We took the same approach by placing our message where drivers would least expect it. We worked with a theatre company to create the first Theatre Ad, which appeared before unsuspecting audiences in a major Wellington theatre. Our Theatre Ad ran before each performance of The December Brother, from 14 August to 11 September 2010. This advertising innovation was witnessed by 6000 drivers live in the theatre and gained enough media attention to take the issue of driver fatigue to a nation of drivers who had previously not accepted it as a problem.
Describe how the campaign/entry was launched across each channel in the order of implementation
To catch drivers by surprise – just like fatigue itself – there was no warning that our Theatre Ad would take place. Instead, we let the Theatre Ad tell the story, so that each driver would experience the complete surprise of a road safety message in a theatre. This allowed drivers to feel the impact of our message and made them recognise the symptoms of fatigue. The only other channel that spread our message was news media. Our Theatre Ad was such a new approach, it attracted national news coverage that took our message to all drivers in New Zealand and thrust the dangers of fatigue into their minds.
Give some idea of how successful this campaign/entry was with both client and consumer
The purpose of our Theatre Ad was to capture drivers’ attention like no other advertising channel before and to make them experience the sudden shock of fatigue, first hand. Our Theatre Ad successfully brought this experience to 6000 drivers in the theatre. The extra PR this stunt generated was valued at 6 times our budget. For the first time, we succeeded in getting national recognition for an issue that drivers had previously not accepted personal responsibility for.