The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013

Entry Number:

95

1. Agency

McCann Melbourne 2. Advertiser Metro 3. Entry Title Dumb Ways to Die 4. Category for this Entry O. Short Term Effects Danish Chan, Adrian Mills 5. Author 6. Phone

03 9993 9333

7. Email

[email protected]

Directions appearing with each question must not to be deleted from the completed case; they serve as a guide for both entrants and judges. Complete entry form in - Type face: black font; 10pt minimum. All data must include a specific, verifiable source. Refer to the Effie “How to Enter” booklet for guidelines on properly sourcing your data. Data without a source will result in entry disqualification. Answer every question or indicate “not applicable” and define your target audience in the entry. Any unanswered question will result in entry disqualification.

Executive Summary (Please Attach the Executive Summary to the front of the entry so the judges can read this first) An Executive Summary of no more than 100 words is also required (not included in page count).

“Dumb Ways to Die” turned a message about rail safety that our target needed to hear into a cultural phenomenon people wanted to engage with. Our strategy was built on a simple premise: give people a reason to listen to us by creating content worth their attention. Safety around trains would become front of mind by treating our communications like entertainment, not advertising. In four months, the campaign became the 3rd most viral ever; the most shared PSA in history and generated a remarkable $19.2M in Australian earned media.

8. Total Campaign Expenditure Include production and value of donated media and non-traditional paid media. Check one. Under $500K

$5 - 10 million

$500 – $1 million

$10 - 20 million

$1 - 2 million

$20 - 40 million

$2 - 5 million

$40 million and over

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013 9A. What was the strategic communications challenge? What was going on in your category? Provide information on the category, marketplace, company, competitive environment, target audience and/or the product /service that created your challenge and your response to it.

Every year there are needless deaths or accidents around Melbourne’s trains. And while rail accidents are tragic, they are in most cases completely avoidable. This was particularly true for young adults. Unfortunately as social issues go, rail safety wasn’t on people’s radar. With more high profile issues around drugs, violence, and drink driving occupying the social zeitgeist we needed to do something to grab our audience’s attention. And with a total budget of $300K, this meant that simply shouting louder wasn’t an option. It meant we needed to leverage both social media and traditional PR to drive awareness and engagement, and affect behaviour change. Most importantly, as we were speaking to young people we had to avoid being just another parental message on a long list of things that they are told not to do. Don’t do drugs. Don’t speed. Don’t smoke. 9B. What were your objectives? State specific goals. Your entry is expected to include compelling data including behavioural objectives and results. Only in rare instances are the judges likely to award an entry that only demonstrates attitudinal changes. Provide a % or # for all goals. If you do not have a specific type of objective (e.g. no quantifiable objectives), state this in the entry form and explain why and why the objectives you do have are significant and challenging in the context of your category, etc. You must provide benchmark and context for your goals versus year prior and in context of competitive landscape and category.

Metro Trains had four prime objectives: 1.

2.

3. 4.

Increase public awareness and engagement with rail safety (there was not sufficient data to provide us with a benchmark prior to this campaign. This campaign was designed to set measurable objectives in terms of awareness & engagement moving forward). Generate PR, buzz and sharing around our message about rail safety. Although an exact Key Performance Indicator (kpi) could not be determined there was an expectation that the campaign would generate earned media on and offline. Invite a commitment to be safe (we drew a line in the sand and looked to get 10,000 local pledges on our website) in a 12-month period. See a reduction of near misses and accidents at level crossings and station platforms over 12 months by 10%.

9C. What was your strategy – and how did you get there? What was your strategy? Was it driven by a consumer insight or channel insight or marketplace / brand opportunity? Explain how it originated and how the strategy addressed the challenge.

There were two key truths that were central to our strategy: 1. Most of the behaviours that lead to rail related accidents were 100% avoidable – caused by people behaving irresponsibly or the result of moments of stupidity. Running

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013 on the tracks, driving around barriers because they couldn’t be bothered waiting, not paying attention to where they were walking. Simply dumb. 2. Young Australians are digital natives, which means they consume media when and where they want. For us to cut through a market filled with parental slogans on big issues we needed to embrace both the active choice they make in the media they consume and leverage the power they hold in their ability to share and influence others. Our strategy was to turn our message about rail safety that no one wanted listen to, into a piece of entertainment that people actively sought out and shared. Embracing the importance of group dynamics within the target market, we chose to avoid the typical patronising voice of authority and create something we hoped people would genuinely want to share. In addition to the entertainment element, we understood there needed to be an edge of controversy to garner the PR and buzz we desired. 9D. What was your big idea?

What was the idea that drove your effort? The idea should not be your execution or tagline. State in 25 WORDS OR LESS.

Persuade people to be safe around trains by demonstrating that of all the dumb ways to die, train related accidents are the dumbest. 9E. How did you bring the idea to life? Describe and provide rationale for your communications strategy that brings the idea to life. Explain how your idea addresses your challenge. Describe the channels selected/why selected? How did your creative and media strategies work together? In not more than three A4 pages show sufficient creative examples to enable the judges to understand the campaign. These pages can be additional to the seven A4 page written entry.

The challenge of having a message that is traditionally invisible meant we needed to reframe the conversation in a way that was hyper engaging. Put simply, we needed to give people a reason to listen to us by creating content worthy of their attention. At the heart of the idea was a 3-minute music video called “Dumb Ways to Die” featuring 21 cartoon characters dying in really dumbs ways (from taking your space helmet off in outer space to using your private parts as piranha bait). Only at the end of the clip – the final 20 seconds, did we reveal the true purpose of the content – where we showed three of the characters dying through train related accidents. Of all the dumb ways to die, these were the dumbest. This piece of content was not only visually striking and completely unique, but had a dark sense of humour that would help its shareability.

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013 Ours was a four-part strategy: 1. TREAT THIS AS ENTERTAINMENT, NOT ADVERTISING Use YouTube as the centre of our universe (Image 1). It was critical that we embrace how and where young Australians consumed entertainment. Our strategy was to then amplify the reach of the song beyond just advertising by releasing it on iTunes as yet another channel / PR opportunity (Image 2). 2. LAUNCH THE CLIP LIKE YOU WOULD A SONG RELEASE Attract attention and curiosity around the song by using both traditional (Radio, TV, Cinema, Posters, Station Ambient) and social media (specifically social media which young Australian’s already associated with entertainment platforms including Sound Cloud, Tumblr and Instagram) to drive initial traffic to the music video on YouTube (Image 3 and Image 4). 3. AMPLIFY THROUGH THE POWER OF PR AND SOCIAL Extend the reach of the campaign through social media (Image 6) and traditional PR (Image 5) beyond the initial $300K campaign spend by creating an idea that would be novel and easily shareable. Everything from the posters in stations to the Instagram pledges were designed to be additional content that would encourage sharing. 4. ASK FOR A COMMITMENT Invite our target group after watching the video to pledge their commitment to being safe around trains by visiting our campaign site or interact with our in station posters (Image 7 & 8).

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013

IMAGE 1. YouTube Video. With over 44 MILLION views to date the music video directed people to our website where they could take the pledge not to do dumb stuff around trains.

IMAGE 2. iTunes. The song could be downloaded for free via Sound Cloud or purchased on iTunes. It charted on iTunes in 28 countries, selling over 77,000 copies putting rail safety on people’s playlists everywhere.

IMAGE 3. Tumblr. With 21 animated gifs our Tumblr site began generating an immediate viral effect before the video even went live.

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013

IMAGE 4. Posters and Decals. Train stations all over Melbourne carried the message as posters and decals.

IMAGE 5. Media Coverage. Every major Australian TV network including a 10-minute piece on Australia’s national non-commercial broadcaster extensively covered the campaign. The song was also played across Australian Radio in non-advertising programming due to its popularity.

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013

IMAGE 6. Covers. Over 200 cover versions, plus parodies, memes and other usergenerated content continue to spread the message, generating 20m+ views.

IMAGE 7. WEBSITE. Where young people could take the pledge not to do dumb stuff around trains.

IMAGE 8. Interactive Outdoor. Outdoor advertising got people to promise to be safe and generated instagram-friendly content (search #dumbwaystodie on Instagram).

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013 10. How do you know your campaign was successful? Detail why you consider your effort a success. Refer to your objectives (results must relate directly to your objectives in (8c) – restate them and provide results) and demonstrate how you met or exceeded those objectives using quantitative and behavioural metrics. Did your effort drive business? Did it drive awareness and consumer/business behaviour? Use charts and data whenever possible. Explain what x% means in your category. For confidential information proof of performance may be indexed if desired. Demonstrate the correlation between activity and outcomes. Make sure you address every objective, whether fully achieved or not. Indicate why the results you have are significant in the context of your category, competition and product / service.

Our goals were straightforward. Our results phenomenal. 1. INCREASE PUBLIC AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT WITH RAIL SAFETY At a higher level, we needed to bring rail safety to the public spotlight. During the first few months of the launch of Dumb Ways to Die, the song garnered astronomical attention and engagement.      

More the 44 million views on YouTube Dumb Ways to Die was so engaging it charted on iTunes in 28 countries i All the major news networks covered the campaign, including the ABC ii 1 in 3 (34%) Melbournians reported seeing the campaign, and amongst our core target (18 – 29 year olds) this figure rose to 46%iii Schools are using the song as a safety education piece in class Over 200 cover versions and parodies have generated an additional 20m YouTube views

2. GENERATE PR, BUZZ AND SHARING AROUND OUR MESSAGE ABOUT RAIL SAFETY (AN EXACT TARGET COULD NOT BE DETERMINED) Dumb Ways to Die evolved into a cultural phenomenon that further extended the reach of the campaign. Not only was it shared around the globe, it became a meme in it’s own right.  



Dumb Ways to Die is the third most viral ad of all timeiv Dumb Ways to Die is the most shared Public Service Announcement (PSA) in history v o 3,207,538 Facebook shares o 100,116 Re-tweets on Twitter o 2,220 Blog postsvi $19.2 million total earned media in Australiavii

3. GET 10,000 MELBOURNIANS TO COMMIT TO BE SAFE AROUND TRAINS Awareness wasn’t enough. We wanted people to pledge to be safe around trains. Our objective was to get 10,000 people pledging to be safe on trains on our website. 

In the first 4 months over 44,000 Melbournians followed the call to action after the song to the campaign site and pledged, “not to do dumb things around trains”.

4. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF NEAR MISSES AND ACCIDENTS AROUND TRAINS (Target of 10% reduction) Metro collects and analyses a significant amount of data about safety incidents on the

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013 network. Although it’s too early to be confident of a sustainable reduction in near misses, the early signs are encouraging. To accurately compare year-on-year statistics we look at the number of near misses in and around stations per million boardings and for level crossings we look at the number of incidents per million kilometres travelled. The biggest improvement was in the number of collisions or near misses with vehicles and pedestrians at level crossings. For the November to January period in 2011/12 there were 13.29 near misses per million kilometres while for the same period in 2012/13 there were 9.17 per million kilometres. viii

11. Did it achieve a positive ROI? You need to convince the judges that the marketing investment provided a positive financial return – if that was a requirement. Indexing of data is acceptable. Your entry will not be ineligible if you don’t provide any data, but entries that do provide convincing evidence will gain additional marks. Profit margin on ROI is defined as / incremental sales less the campaign costs. (Note that this data can be excluded from the published case on request.) We recognise that, in some instances, a measurable financial return will not be an objective.

As this is a public services campaign we have used earned media and album sales as the basis for determining ROI. Dumb Ways to Die delivered a remarkable $19.2 Million in earned media in Australia. A conservative calculation of the reach and impact of the campaign, taking into account only traditional media coverage and not the value of social media still highlights the undeniable success of Dumb Ways to Die. In addition, the iTunes release of the song was downloaded 77,866 times globally. The approximate total revenue totalled $62,000ix and this has been re-invested in further rail safety programs. With a total campaign investment of just under $300,000, this is a ROI of 6,506%. 12. Convince us that the result was not due to other factors.

You must explain in your entry the effect of any other potentially relevant factors such as product changes, pricing changes, distribution changes, competitive activity, press coverage, economic conditions, weather etc. Advertising does not often work in isolation, but the judges need to be convinced that your campaign had a major impact on results.

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013

Figure 1. Google Insights: YouTube Search analysis for “Dumb ways to Die”. We have looked at the success of this campaign in two parts. A key part of this campaign’s success was to shine a spotlight on the importance of rail safety. As indicated by the search results for “Dumb Ways to Die” (Figure 1), the spike in public engagement correlates directly with the campaign’s launch and communication activity. The second key measure is the reduction in rail related near misses and accidents. During the period of November 2012 to January 2013, Metro saw a clear reduction in near misses and accidents around trains. These figures exclude intentional deaths around trains. Although it’s too early to be confident of a sustainable reduction in near misses, the early signs are encouraging. Typically attributing the sole success of a reduction of accidents and deaths to an advertising campaign is dubious. Commuter numbers, weather, ongoing safety activities, and high profile incidents all contribute to changes in public behaviour around trains. However due to the strong correlation between the campaign’s launch in November, the level of attention it gained in both traditional and social media and the minimal changes in Metro’s safety procedures, we believe that Dumb Ways to Die has had a considerable impact on these safety results. Apart from our rail safety campaign, there were no other activities or initiatives underway by Metro itself to improve safety. The influence of other PSA’s were considered in the evaluation of the results. In Melbourne there was one other notable transport safety message that was visible in market. “Beware the Rhino” which launched in March 2011 has been a long running and consistent fixture in Melbourne’s public transport announcements x. Due to its consistent presence with no change leading up to our reduction in accidents we feel confident that it had minimal effect on our results.

The Australian Effie Awards Entry Form 2013

ENDNOTES i

Music Chart Info – iTunes Music Chart History, http://www.music-chart.info/song/1063981/Dumb-Ways-to-Die Dumb ways to die turns into internet sensation, ABC News (22 Nov 2012), http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-21/dumbways-to-die-turns-into-internet-sensation/4383924 iii Sweeney Research – Metro Trains Brand Awareness December 2012 iv Viral Video Chart – Mashable Global Ads Chart, All time, http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/chart_keyword/Mashable_Global_Ads_Chart?interval=all_time v Viral Video Chart, Dumb Ways to Die – Statistics, http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/youtube/Dumb_Ways_to_Die?id=IJNR2EpS0jw vi Viral Video Chart, Dumb Ways to Die – Statistics, http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/youtube/Dumb_Ways_to_Die?id=IJNR2EpS0jw vii Approximation based on industry standard calculations available on request viii Internal Metro Trains Data ix iTunesCore Data (March 2013) x Yarra Trams PSA, Beware the Rhino, http://www.yarratrams.com.au/media-centre/news/articles/2012/rhino-is-namedaustralia's-best/ ii