The upside of road safety: changing behaviours isn't Rocket Surgery
Corporate road safety is a great example of an unpleasant-but-essential communications problem: one might think that grown adults would be capable of managing this issue without help from the comms team. Yet as the millions of dollars spent on horrifying road safety commercials shows, the message still struggles to get through. At Optus' North Sydney headquarters, this problem was brought to attention by a number of nasty accidents which needed immediate action. Our solution was unconventional to say the least.
To give some context: Optus' site at North Sydney stretched across two high-rise buildings on opposite sides of a narrow and dangerous road. Our observations of the site were harrowing experiences, with a spaghetti of pedestrians, buses, cars, couriers and bikes jostling for a narrow road and only a handful of car parks. The diagonal between the two buildings, plus the road's incline blocking visibility, were a pedestrian's version of Russian Roulette.
True, a dangerous situation - but the dangers would be avoidable if the correct road rules were followed. Optus staff thought otherwise, make a hurried leap from one building to the other, mobile phone in one hand, coffee in the other, using neither the traffic lights nor the safety barrier. "You may be a bus, but I am terribly important and terribly late..." Judging by the behaviours on display, few thought road safety was a priority at all.
Earlier communications tried to change staff behaviours using the tried-and-tested messages: cross at the lights, don't talk on your phone, look both ways, and so on. We knew that something different was needed; a lifetime of ignoring these messages would not suddenly change overnight.
Something was needed to cut through the clutter. Our strategy was multi-faceted, commencing with an attack from the highest levels - the CEO and Direct of Human Resources, who framed the context of road safety as an essential OH&S issue.
Secondly, we took Optus' 'challenger' mentality and turned it on its head. Eagle-eyed readers may recognise our MD as the talent in this poster.)
As an attention-grabbing headline, the posters were a great success, the first stage in putting the message 'on the street.' We followed with a more direct tactical event aimed at putting the message squarely in the context where it was most needed: out on Miller Street.
Round one saw two expert New York cops in charge of pedestrian enforcement, using a direct interaction with pedestrians as they crossed the street. No transgression was left unpunished (a ticket), no good behaviour unrewarded (a lolly): our offices brought a zero-tolerance policy and a sense of humour to a potentially dangerous situation. NYPD does not take no for an answer:
Life-savers and soccer referees followed in the months after.
The campaign was a lightning bolt for attention and word-of mouth was extremely positive: it brought the issue to everyone's lips and casual observations on Miller Street suggest a successful change. But importantly for everyone at Straight Media, we liked this campaign because it was a great use of creative ideas to tackle an issue in an unexpected, multi-faceted way. And if we're saving lives too, then we sleep better at night!
KEY PEOPLE
Concept: Rafe Spies
Art Direction: Mark McAleer
Photography: Nicky Ryan
Talent: Alex Smith, Detour Management
FURTHER INFORMATION