2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

The Paper Car is a public outreach initiative that addresses one of the biggest concerns in Dubai - Road Safety. The Brief: The average speed in Dubai is 127 km/h. Unsurprisingly, speeding was ranked as the 4th leading cause of death in 2013. So in 2014, the Roads and Transport Authority tasked us with getting commuters to drive at lower speeds. The Strategy: The laws in the city already demand safe driving. However, habits are stronger than laws. So we set out to change the speeding habit to a safe driving habit.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

At 100 km/h, your car is only as strong as paper. If you knew your car was that fragile at high speeds, you would surely drive slower and safer. To show people this, we built life-sized paper cars and took them to every corner of the city – to the malls, universities, residential neighbourhoods and even the national highway. It got the people, social media and even the press to rally around our cause and bring about an immediate change in road safety.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The Paper Cars cost just AED 50,000 – less than half the budget of a conventional Promotional & Activation campaign for the same period. But it delivered thrice as much. In just 2 weeks, 50,000 people signed the cars and made a personal pledge to drop their speed. Hundreds of thousands of people gave it a voice on social media. Including 4 national and 3 regional dailies. Thanks to the support of the people and the media, speeding casualties went down by 7%. And speeding dropped to being the 5th leading cause of death in Dubai.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The Paper Cars addressed one of the biggest safety concerns in Dubai. Speeding. They challenged a dangerous assumption – that cars are safe at any speed. No one had told people their cars, with their steel reinforced chassis, 5-star safety ratings and all, were only as strong as paper at high speeds. No one had built life-sized paper cars either and taken them around the city to promote safe driving either. Simple, straightforward and truthful – the Paper Cars mirror the Road & Transport Authority's tone of voice.