THE VIRTUAL CRASH BILLBOARD

Short List
TitleTHE VIRTUAL CRASH BILLBOARD
BrandPARISIAN ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY
Product/ServicePEDESTRIANS ROAD SAFETY
Category B07. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
Entrant SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation 2 SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Media Placement SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
PR SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Production TRINITY FILMS Paris, FRANCE
Production 2 COMPTOIR DU SON Paris, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
Schill Alexander SERVICEPLAN Germany Global Chief Creative Officer
Poupon Hervé SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Chief Creative Officer
Perez Daniel SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Creative Director
Lesaint François SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Art Director
Coché Benjamin SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Copywriter
Langgartner Lorenz SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Associate Creative Director
Roeppischer Franz SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Associate Creative Director
Fritz Dennis SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Senior Motion Designer
Chabert Renaud TRINITY FILMS Producer
Brianceau Inès TRINITY FILMS Production Manager
Moireau Angélique TRINITY FILMS Editor
Poirier Alexandre COMPTOIR DU SON Sound Studio

The Campaign

To change behaviors, nothing has more impact than the experience of danger. We thought: Why does always an accident has to happen first to make people realize the danger? How can we create a huge mass media impact – without a single actual crash impact? The creative idea of this campaign was born: make people experience the fear of getting hit by a car and transform this individuals’ experience into a raised awareness mass campaign targeting the largest number of people. Impact – without an impact.

Creative Execution

Starting on March 22nd, we held an unprecedented field operation in Paris. A specially designed interactive digital billboard was consecutively displayed near busy pedestrian crossings all over the Paris area. Equipped with a motion detector, speaker, and camera, the smart billboard made the sound of squealing tires whenever a pedestrian attempted to cross the road while the Red Man (no crossing sign) was on. The frightened faces of disobedient pedestrians were projected directly onto the billboard and shown alongside the caption: Don’t risk looking death in the face. Check the lights and cross safely. QR Codes on the Billboard led to video messages of real crash survivors. Pedestrians could then take a pledge not to cross on red light anymore and contribute their picture to the campaign. We used the pictures of the frightened faces as posters created under real-life conditions and used the film as an online awareness-raising tool.

More than an amazing number of views of the video and a high engagement level, this Virtual Crash Billboard video really started the conversation. In a few days, the topic of pedestrian and drivers co-existence became an n°1 topic in main French news websites, TV channels, and social networks. Rapidly, the campaign started its “organic” world tour. The figures exploded and the Virtual Crash Billboard largely spread worldwide. More than 15 TV shows, 100 global news digital platforms and thousands of posts on social networks linked to the campaign appeared. Only 2 weeks after the campaign launch, we counted 6 million organic views, 250.000 interactions, and 18 million total impressions, but six months later, as far as we are aware of, we count: - 80 MILLION ORGANIC VIEWS - 3 MILLION INTERACTIONS - 1.500.000.000 IMPRESSIONS Last but not least, several foreign Safety Road Departments asked us to duplicate the operation.

The Virtual Crash Billboard was conceived to raise awareness about the dangers of pedestrian carelessness. It is based on a stunt which involves immediately the public thanks to a specially designed innovative interactive digital billboard which was displayed near pedestrian crossings. Equipped with a movement detector, speaker, and camera, the smart billboard made the sound of squealing tires whenever a pedestrian attempted to cross despite the no-crossing sign. The frightened faces were projected onto the billboard with a message. With just a billboard, we started a national conversation about crossing on red light.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In terms of road safety, French people are particularly disobedient towards safety rules. This is true for drivers, and for pedestrians too. Rather than repeating the rules again, we decided to make people experience the unique moment when one faces an imminent danger. We decided to create the conditions of this special moment, to film it and make from the images an on-line awareness-raising tool: the virtual crash billboard video. We also decided to use the photos of the frightened faces of these people as a poster created under real-life conditions. First, the posters were put in real-time in front of the disobedient pedestrians to make them realize how foolishly they had acted. Secondly, the posters were used as part of the forthcoming 'Quinzaine Régionale des Usagers Vulnérables' campaign (train station billboards, Facebook campaign, etc.). All this material was widely spread online through websites, social networks, e.newsletters...