Country drivers targeted in SA Road Safety’s latest campaign via Black Sheep Advertising
Recent figures released by SA Police show that almost 70% of fatalities on regional roads in South Australia over the last 5 years are people who live in regional areas. The fact is, approximately 40% of fatalities on regional roads occurred within 20km of home. Given that only 30% of the SA population live regionally, this is of great concern.
This is confounded by the fact that research also shows that among country people, there’s a mistaken belief that it’s actually people from metro areas dying on country roads.
The latest campaign by Black Sheep Advertising aims to dispel this myth, focusing on the inarguable stat ‘2 in 3 deaths on country roads are country people’.
Says Tom Ootes, director of client services, Black Sheep Advertising: “People who live in regional areas massively over-index in these figures, so it’s important that the audience are presented with the truth.”
Says Richard Blackwell, manager media road safety, SA Police: “In research with our target audience, two things stood out – the 2 in 3 stat; and how relatable the idea of complacency leading to a road death is.”
The campaign consists of a hero 30 second TV spot featuring a man walking towards the camera listing the five things that can kill you in country areas; Not wearing a seatbelt, driving distracted, drink or drug driving, fatigue and speeding.
Adds Blackwell: “Our research shows these are the behaviours that most highly result in a fatal consequence.”
Says Andrew Millar, creative director and principle, Black Sheep Advertising: “We know that a large number of those who live regionally have been personally effected by a road accident at some point. So ensuring the campaign leverages off the emotions and the experiences of the target audience was important.”
The ‘Country Roads’ campaign launches Sunday 17th October across free to air, catchup TV, outdoor, press, digital and within venues.
This is the second campaign Black Sheep Advertising has produced for SAPOL, following the successful Selfish Prick drink driving campaign.
Client: SAPOL
Manager, Media Road Safety: Richard Blackwell
Creative Agency: Black Sheep Advertising
Creative Director: Andrew Millar
Director of Client Services: Tom Ootes
Senior Account Manager: Daniel Wilde
Account Coordinator: Natalie Carey
Senior Creative: Keenie (Jane Keen)
Creative: Franwyn Botha, Danilo Watanabe
Strategic Consultants: John McLaren
Production Company: Proetic
Producer: Erica Ockenden, David Ockenden
Director: Richie Coburn
DOP: Miles Rowland
Sound Engineer: Scott Illingworth
Sound Studio: Seeing Sounds
Post Production Editor: Mark McKenna
Post Production House: Sparkl
Photographer: Richard Lyons
Retoucher: Paul Munzberg
Casting: Heesom Casting
Media Agency: Wavemaker
9 Comments
It’s hard to understand why this sort of ad is produced.
It states the bleeding obvious.
There’s no new information.
Why do the makers of this work think it will change the behaviours that lead to road trauma in the regions?
Poor strategy leads to this sort of weak advertising.
I agree. I actually got confused with what the ad was trying to say. I hadn’t realised that research showed that country people think it’s city folk who get killed. It is obvious that more country people die on country roads, the same as more city folk die on city roads. I would have to question that research.
Is it obvious that two out of three deaths on country roads are country people, or is that new information? It’s hard to understand why this sort of ad is misunderstood.
– because people need reminding whats at stake . because they forget .
does it simply effectively . nice .
Without supplying details of the relative percentage of city versus country drivers on country roads this statistic is meaningless. If (for example – i.e. hypothetically) 99% of the drivers on country roads are country people it would indicate an inordinate percentage of C I T Y drivers dying. If only 10% of the drivers on country roads are country drivers it indicates the reverse. This is the type of problem that occurs when untrained staff are allowed to view and interpret data. Wiyhout context any percentage is meaningless. Please do better
Ridiculous ad. Naturally the majority of deaths on country roads are country drivers, they are the ones predominantly using the roads.
The real concern here is that city drivers on country roads account for 33% of deaths, they are only utilising country roads infrequently & make up less than 10% of the traffic on country roads.
Thus 10% (or less) of drivers on country roads equate to over 33% of deaths. Time to rethink your campaign.
Every time this ad pops up on FB it is pilloried by people making comments similar to those above. Without knowing the relative number of km driven by city and country folk on country roads the above figure is meaningless.
SAPOL shoil ask for their money back.
Yes, as others have stated this is a ridiculous ad campaign. SAPOL! What percent of drivers on regional roads are country people? Are the number of deaths on country roads proportional to the number of drivers? Because at the moment your advert is the basically equivalent to saying “most city fatalities are city residents” well no s#*t Sherlock!
This is a disgraceful ad campaign. I am born bred and live rural. As a rural person our ability to navigate and drive rural and regional road well out seed our city relatives. We were educated to gain our license on rural roads. Please be mindful of who causes the accident on the rural and regional road.
Please remove the signs on our highways highlighting rural supposedly status and describe it as rural driver become vitalities of reckless drivers whom are more often city based on long distance traveling not understanding our roads.