Road Safety Advertising and Social Marketing

Traditional road safety advertising via media such as television, print media, radio and static roadside advertising is being overtaken by a transition to broader campaigns that include the internet, digital marketing and direct marketing. This paper discusses several examples of recent road safety advertising campaigns that have used novel approaches, including the Roads and Traffic Authority's anti-speeding public awareness campaign ‘Speeding. No one thinks big of you’ which featured Myspace webpages and specific internet advertising, the Roads and Traffic Authority's ‘Pimp Our Ads’ initiative, Land Transport NZ’s ‘Phone Legends’ campaign using SMS messaging to deliver a road safety message to influence the decision of an individual to engage in a risky and illegal behaviour, and VicRoads ‘YellowCard’ campaign using video messaging to allow people to tell friends that they are disappointed with their dangerous driving. The evidence is that target populations will participate in interactive communications that are centred around safety messages.