New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA): THEATRE AD

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Special Events and Stunt/Live Advertising
Advertiser: NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORT AGENCY
Product/Service: ROAD SAFETY
Agency: CLEMENGER BBDO
Date of First Appearance: Aug 14 2010
Entrant Company: CLEMENGER BBDO, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
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: (SEEYD)
Media placement: Theatre Ad - Downstage Theatre, Wellington - 14 August 2010
Insights, Strategy & the Idea
Create a new medium that demonstrates how fatigue strikes when you least expect.
Every driver is at risk of fatigue, so we were talking to all drivers. They don’t appreciate how it can strike without warning, so they don’t accept the dangers.
Fatigue takes drivers by surprise. We took the same approach in creating our new medium, which would deliver the message without them realising.
Our insight is a basic truth of driver fatigue. It’s an experience every driver understands and therefore makes them realise the danger of fatigue.
Creative Execution
For the first time, we took our road safety message into a theatre. Our audience had never encountered an advertising message here, so this entirely new medium would make drivers personally feel the sudden shock of fatigue. It would also create enough media to reach a wider audience.
The primary medium was the theatre. Our Theatre Ad ran before each performance of The December Brother, from 14th August to 11th September 2010. This media innovation did result in massive PR, valued at 6 times our budget. For the first time, fatigue was accepted by drivers across New Zealand.
Results and Effectiveness
During the campaign, 6000 drivers experienced our Theatre Ad live. Our message spread beyond the theatre, thanks to the PR this media innovation generated.
The primary goal was to make drivers accept that they could be at risk of fatigue. To achieve this, our Theatre Ad reached them in a completely new way and recreated the familiar feeling of fatigue.
Over 6,000 drivers saw our Theatre Ad. The extra PR this media innovation generated was valued at 6 times our budget. For the first time, we succeeding in getting national recognition for an issue that drivers hadn’t previously accepted.