2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Abu Dhabi police revealed that 13% of vehicle accidents in 2018 occurred due to driver tailgating making it one of the most common and dangerous traffic offences in the UAE. To make matters worse, according to the 7th cycle of “Road Safety Monitor” 40% of motorist’s felts that the roads the UAE have become more dangerous, while around 60% said they see an increase in aggressive driving, lane-swerving, and tailgating. Nissan’s brand vision is to move people to a better world. The ultimate long-term goals for the brand are to offer mobility solutions with zero impact on people or the environment – zero fatalities and zero emissions. To deliver on this brand vision, Nissan created an engaging print ad that people were actively encouraged to keep their distance from.

Describe the creative idea.

To bring the idea to life we used pointillism – a technique in which small, distinct dots are applied in patterns to form an image. The method relies on the ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to blend the color spots into a fuller range of tones. When viewed from a very close distance the eye is unable to combine the dots to reveal the larger message. As such, the only distinguishable word is "unsafe". However, when viewed from a distance of 5-metres, the safe recommended safe driving distance, the eye can blend the colored spots to reveal the larger message "safe". Through leveraging the pointillism technique, we were able to create an interactive message that generated a deeper level of engagement with people by getting them to physically move away from the print to dramatize the recommended safe driving distance.

Describe the strategy.

To build our strategy, we turned to social psychology for inspiration as to how we could best initiative a positive behavior change. Cognitive dissonance refers to an uncomfortable tension that can exist between two simultaneous conflicting ideas or feelings. In this case, almost all drivers know it’s safer to keep an adequate distance from the car in front of them, however, for a variety of reasons, they’re behavior behind the wheel is inconsistent with their beliefs. To increase the likelihood of a positive behavior change, we needed to arouse this dissonance and make people mindful of the fact that their actions were inconsistent with their beliefs. Research shows deeper levels of personal engagement in highlighting cognitive dissonance can lead to higher levels of desired behavior change. So, to show people what a safe driving distance looks like we encouraged them to physically moved away from our message.

Describe the execution.

We executed the idea through print ads. Due to the nature of the concept this medium was the logical choice due to the interactive element, getting people to physically move the message away from themselves. Additionally, through the use of print, we were able to increase the reach of our message ensuring it resonated with a large percentage of the UAE population.

List the results.

This campaign just recently launched in the market. As a result, there have been no recorded effects to show at this point. Statistics show that driving fatalities in the UAE have declined year-on-year, however, an increase in surveillance cameras and the price of driving infraction fines in addition to road safety awareness are all likely to have contributed to this reduction.