The collaboration of Derin Seale (direction) and Simon Lister (sound) is implanting another NZTA message deep under your skin.
Speeding driver hits pedestrian – or in the new NZTA ad, Numbers, comes within a hair’s breadth of it. It has been done before. But not with the combined input of Derin Seale’s direction and Simon Lister’s sound.
This is Seale and Lister second NZTA ad. Last year, Mistakes, made an impressive sweep of the world’s creative, effectiveness and production awards.
The new ad by Clemenger BBDO Wellington, to make drivers aware of the effects of ‘just speeding’, did start with a nice idea. As a young mum does an everyday driving trip, all the everyday potential accidents she passes are recognised by the speed at which she is travelling at the time.
Then she nearly hits a teenage girl. Watch how every viewer with a driving licence is made to feel that moment.
According to the NZTA, most road users recognise the risks of driving at speed but don’t always recognise speeding in their own driving. “This campaign targets competent drivers aged between 20-49 years who drive regularly. These people drive ‘comfortably’ fast; typically a bit faster than the posted speed limit or other traffic. But they don’t consider it to be wrong or anti-social because it’s not really ‘speeding’ in their minds. They feel competent and in control of their vehicle, but they do care about what other people think of their driving—they want to be seen as a good driver and want to feel good when driving.
“It continues to be a huge public health and road safety issue. Each year, around 80 people are killed and 400 are seriously injured in speed-related crashes.” Excessive speed is a contributing factor in 20% of all fatal and serious injury crashes on New Zealand roads
Clemenger BBDO executive creative director, Philip Andrew, commented, “When we started working on NZTA, or LTSA as it was known then, the average mean speed if you were categorised as a speeder was 120kmh. Now it’s under the tolerance, around 107-109kmh. That progress hasn’t been made because of engineering or car safety technology. That’s happening because of lobbying and the work we’ve done to get people to accept that there are other people on the road.”
Creative credits:
Production company: Finch
Director: Derin Seale
Executive producer: Rob Galluzzo
Producer: Karen Bryson
DoP: Crighton Bone
Production designer: Guy Treadgold
Advertising agency: Clemenger BBDO Wellington
Executive creative director: Philip Andrew
Creative director: Brigid Alkema
Art director: Erik Hay
VFX: Method Studios
Sound: Simon Lister @ Nylon Studios
NZTA is an enthusiastic advertiser that’s also particularly loyal to it creative. In October, it created a world-first campaign, using Snapchat, and director Taika Waititi. His drug driving ad for NZTA, Blazed, also scooped up an abundance of awards in 2014. The campaign’s goal was to change young drivers’ misconception (discovered during research) that they were safer behind the wheel after smoking marijuana, because they drove slower.
NZTA spokesman, Andy Knackstedt, commented, “Drug-driving is serious and a growing problem with young drivers in New Zealand and around the world.
The problem is that many of these guys don’t want to hear that what they’re doing is dangerous, and they’re experts at tuning out conventional advertising messages.”
NZTA worked with a local website to develop a Snapchat account under the name Tinnyvision, fronted by a group of young Kiwis. As word spread about Tinnyvision’s funny “stoner snaps”, thousands of people added the account to their contact list on Snapchat.
Over the course of a day, they received a series of video snaps from Tinnyvision in which the NZTA heroes smoke marijuana and their reactions get slower.
Then, they drive off to get something to eat. At the end of the last video, the car approaches a pedestrian crossing as a woman and child are walking across it. The driver reacts too slowly to stop, and hits the girl. The recipients of Tinnyvision’s snap did not know if what they had seen was real.
A few minutes later, they received the message, ‘Stoned drivers are slower to react’. The campaign reached more than 7500 people, with 95% of its Snapchat contacts watching the full series of snaps and receiving the road safety message at the end.