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The following article is reproduced by the kind permission of

the Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association

www.larsoa.org.uk

Road safety advertising – how is it made?

In recent years the Think! publicity team has consistently produced some of the most powerful advertising on British television.

Furthermore, at 16 per cent the positive/refused breath test percentage for 2001 was the highest since 1992.

As the Bicycle television commercial had been running since October 2002, the Think! team decided there was a need to refresh the campaign with a new creative approach.

Step 2 - finding the strongest creative approach

In October 2003 we held a 'Ways In' session at our advertising agency, Leo Burnett.  The session brought together road safety practitioners, representatives from the police and medical professions, relevant third parties and advertising experts to help identify the strongest ways in for future drink-drive advertising.

From the 'Ways In' we selected seven creative routes that we believed had some merit and in February 2004 we carried out qualitative research among men aged 17-20, 21-24, 20-29 and 30-34; women aged 20-29; and finally couples aged 20-29. 

The groups were representative of various life stages – including single, married with children, and socio-economic groups from urban and rural areas in the north, south and midlands. 

I, along with other members of the Think! team, attended two groups of 17-20 and 21-29 year old men in outer London. It was of some concern to us when we heard a motorcyclist in the younger age group admit to drinking six pints and getting on his bike! The results of the research will be presented to the Think! team, DfT's road safety division and Leo Burnett on 10 March.

What next?

Based on the results of the qualitative research the Think! publicity team will brief Leo Burnett, who will in turn brief their creative teams. The creatives will then work up scripts and the ones that best meet the brief will be presented to the DfT in the middle of April. The scripts will be carefully considered by the Think! team and the DfT road safety division. The script or scripts that we believe will be most effective against our target audience will be taken forward.

At this stage more qualitative research will be carried out with the target audience to establish how the scripts are received and if we need to make amendments. It is vital that we pinpoint any areas where people can 'opt out' from the script(s) and that the message is clear.

From the research results we will select a final script. There may be some amendments at this stage but when we are satisfied with the script we will submit it to the road safety minister for approval. Leo Burnett will then select an appropriate director (for our approval) who will have demonstrated a clear understanding of the script and what we want to achieve. 

Now for the interesting bit - casting, location finding, production meetings and finally the shoot itself.

Depending on script complexity it can take two full days to shoot a 30 second television commercial. You may think that television shoots are exciting - and they can be, depending on the script - but most of the time is spent standing around waiting for things to happen.

Most memorably I have spent hours freezing to death in Tring, been soaked and blown away on an unopened road near Eastbourne, sat around a graveyard all day (when I worked for the New South Wales Government) and waited for the rain to stop during the filming of Summertime.

We don't tend to use well-known actors in our films because we want our target audience to concentrate on the message not the celebrity. However, many actors who have appeared in our commercials are now famous - Gillian Taylforth, Denise van Outen and Ken Stott, to name a few.

The film is edited and we then see a 'rough cut', which still needs to be colour graded and sound balanced. We will suggest any edit changes we wish to make and when we are satisfied with this we will submit it for ministerial approval. The agency will then finish the film and re-submit it to us for approval.  When it is finally approved it is played out to television stations.

Television media plans and budget must not be forgotten - they have to be signed off around three months prior to air date.

During the above process we will also be looking at radio scripts and poster and leaflet designs. We will also be updating the Think! website and supplying LARSOA with information for its website. We will also be working with our PR agency, our press office and the Government News Network (GNN) towards the launch of the campaign.

Article reproduced courtesy of the LARSOA road safety newsfeed, UK. www.larsoa.org.uk

Glyn Robinson is publicity manager with responsibility for drink drive, fatigue, older drivers, rail, mobility, taxis and Transec.