2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Tailgating is a global problem, but in the UAE it is the major cause of road accidents and deaths and it's on the rise. Aggressive driving is a common occurrence on UAE roads. Dubai Police records show that in the last year, more than 43,200 accidents took place due to drivers not keeping a safe distance between vehicles. With over 30% involving taxis, the Roads and Transport Authority briefed us to come up with a solution. There are many different Nationalities living in the UAE who we needed to connect with. The Arabian Radio Network owns stations across all of them all so by partnering with them we were able to deliver our message in the main languages spoken in the country. We created a unique device that's activated when the taxi reaches 60kmph. Sensors mounted to the front and rear of the taxi measure the distance between the car in front and the car behind the taxi. If the taxi breaches the 2 car lengths safety zone a message is delivered direct through the taxi's audio system warning the driver to slow down. If a car comes to close to the back of the taxi the device send the message direct to the offending cars radio. So far we have had over 416million media impressions, it is the most talked about topic in the region in 2015 and for the first time in 4 years there has been a reduction in tailgating related accidents by 14.8%

The Brief

The goal was simple. We needed to do more than just raise awareness around the dangers of tailgating, we wanted to make people change their behavior whilst driving and before it was too late. Research from the Arabian Radio Network proved that radio was still the main source of entertainment while driving across the UAE with over 3 million listeners every day, which validated our approach and ultimately the solution.

Execution

We created a unique device that is activated when the taxi reaches 60kmph. Sensors mounted to the front and rear of the taxi measure the distance between the car in front and the car behind the taxi. If the taxi breaches the 2 car lengths safety zone a message is delivered direct through the taxi's audio system warning the driver to slow down. If a car comes to close to the back of the taxi the device send the message direct to the offending cars radio. By partnering with the Arabian Radio Network we covered all major radio stations across 4 of the most spoken languages in the UAE. The campaign is running across the RTA's franchised taxi fleet. It is an ongoing campaign and plans are being worked on to broaden the use across public buses and school transport.

The campaign not only raised awareness of the problem, it has actually started to change the behavior of taxi drivers and motorists across the Country. Taxi driver tailgating incidents fell from an average of 264 to 62 per day, resulting in a 426% reduction in tailgating occurrences. Recorded public motorist tailgating incidents fell from an average of 58 per day to 16, resulting in a 363% reduction in tailgating occurrences. Back off radio has successfully delivered 32 440 warning messages to date. This has lead to an overall reduction of tailgating related accidents of 14.8% in the first quarter of 2015. The story quickly spread and was a major talking point across all mediums – radio, news sites, motoring publications and major news channels. Creating 416 million media impressions generating over $1million of earned media spend.

The Strategy

The RTA's primary concerns are the safety of their driver's and the public on the roads of UAE. There have been many traditional communication campaigns to tackle road safety but these have had very little effect in changing driver behavior. There are two sets of target audience in this campaign: 1. The taxi drivers themselves. 2. Motorist's in general. There are many different Nationalities living in the UAE who we needed to connect with. The Arabian Radio Network owns stations across all of them all so by partnering with them we were able to deliver our message in the main languages spoken in the country. By communicating our message to offending taxi drivers as well as motorists we were able to be relevant to both when it mattered most.