The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and the Australian Football League (AFL) Victoria have partnered together to promote road safety for over 10 years. In the past, their sponsorship campaigns have typically engaged elite football players to help share their various messages. However, with the road toll up 59% in July 2019, the TAC needed to start a conversation in local, rural communities, who were vastly overrepresented in road accidents. In fact, drivers on regional roads are four times more likely to die or be seriously injured in an accident. More than ever, the TAC needed to make young road users in these areas who are most vulnerable of all aware that they’re not invincible, and that this very real number is something that we all need to play a part in changing. The approach of using high profile spokespeople to endorse a safety message needed to shift to connect on a local level to make the problem personal, and reinforce the importance that everyone plays in helping achieve the TAC’s goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
With nearly every community affected by road trauma, our strategy was to use the campaign to provide a platform for local, regional communities all around the state to start the conversation amongst themselves, and use their social channels to explain the importance of road safety within their community. A campaign that inspired people to talk to each other about the problem in a relevant way, rather than having an advertisement talk at them. In this case, to better connect to tight knit regional communities, endorsement of the message would come from peers, rather than the pros.
On a weekend dedicated to road safety, the TAC x AFL Victoria Towards Zero Round, we went to every community football club in Victoria, and gave the club captains a message they could wear. A conversation starter in the form of a new number, never worn on an Australian football field before: Zero. The only acceptable number of deaths on our roads.
To explain the jersey’s significance, we filmed two jersey presentations with a point of difference. We found and contacted two communities that had been particularly affected by the problem in the past, and knew the impact it could have on a local community. We then filmed as the jersey was presented by community members who truly understand the importance of zero, having lost someone close to them to road trauma. These individuals handed over not only the bespoke zero jersey, but a personalised message that zero is far more than just a number. As a result, every club member watching, from players to parents, saw zero in a context relevant to their community. The gesture was captured on film, so Victorians everywhere could witness the importance of zero.
We sent out the new jerseys to all local football clubs in the state in bespoke packaging, and invited them to host their own presentations, tell their stories, share them via #towardszero and give personal context to the importance of road safety within their community. Almost every club hosted and filmed their own jersey presentation, posted and shared to their own social channels, educating their wider community on the cause, and giving them the personal context they needed to understand the impact of road trauma. Every club became an ambassador for our message, and every captain wore it on their back. The round saw over 1000 clubs wear zero, with over 1000 presentations held and 1000 conversations started, all spread on social media by the clubs to their surrounding communities.
By making the message personal, we gave people a reason to share it on their personal channels, and gained further reach than any of the TAC x AFL campaigns prior.
The presentations and meaning behind the number was publicised by over 200 media outlets, from regional to metro, and telecast by every major news provider in the country. The zero jersey garnered a total of 46.6+ million impressions, predominantly built out of the user-generated social content coming straight from the personal stories of local, regional communities themselves.
The round itself, and wearing of the zero jersey, was made an annual event by AFL Victoria set to go state-wide in 2020. A yearly reminder for every community that even one death on our roads, is too many.