Title	CRAH TEST
Brand	THE FRENCH ROAD SAFETY DELEGATION
Product/Service	ROAD SECURITY
Category	D02. Use of Branded Content created for Digital or Social
Entrant	DDB PARIS, FRANCE
Idea Creation	DDB PARIS, FRANCE
Production	STINK DIGITAL Paris, FRANCE
Production 2	STUDIO 5 Paris, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
Alexander Kalchev	DDB Paris	Executive Creative Director
Alexis BENBEHE	DDB Paris	Creative Director
Pierre MATHONAT	DDB Paris	Creative Director
Jeanne Taillard	DDB Paris	Copywriter
Timothy Alexandre	DDB Paris	Art Director
Corinne Persch	DDB Paris	Agency Producer
Vincent Léorat	DDB Paris	Vice-Président
Nicolas Kabassakalis	DDB Paris	Account Manager
Andéole Vu-Dinh-Ba	DDB Paris	Account Executive
Gregory Panteix	Stink Digital	Executive Producer
Bettina Diss	Stink Digital	Production Director
Stanislas Liban	Stink Digital	Photographer

Why is this work relevant for Media?

The French Road Safety Organisation organized a crash-test to demonstrate the effect of non-attached seat belts in a car accident. We wanted to change this cold demonstration into a true human and emotional story. By broadcasting a crash-test on facebook live, we knew there was a few seconds delay between what happens in reality and the live showing up on facebook. A delay that we used to change the perception of the crash for the viewers, by inserting another video in the stream before the impact: A flashback of the crash-test dummies lives, showing them as a happy, real family.

Background

The French Road Safety Organisation assignment is to lower the number of deaths on the road by addressing all their causes. In 2016, failure to use seatbelts is still a key factor: it causes nearly 10% of lethal accidents in France (354 out of 3,655 people). Today, 2 of 3 children are not correctly attached in the car or not attached at all. This is why The French Road Safety Delegation organised the first crash-test opened to national press and television of the decade, featuring both attached and non-attached crash-test dummies.

Describe the creative idea/insights

We wanted to take advantage of this national event and increase the reach of the message. The first step was to make it public, by broadcasting it live on Facebook. Crash-tests are accurate accident simulations, but are seen as cold and scientific, and do not engage people emotionally. So, we asked ourselves, how do we make people and journalists care about these plastic dummies, as if they were real people? We knew there is a few second delay between the real crash and the facebook live broadcast and we used it to add a new sequence in the live, just before the impact: A flashback of the crash-test dummies happy family life, before the accident. In a few seconds, we transformed a cold demonstration into a human drama. Then, we used the data of the crash-test to write the story of the family after the accident on social media.

Describe the strategy

When it comes to road safety, especially regarding the seatbelt use, everyone is concerned and has a part of responsibility. Initially, people were invited to see the crash test on Facebook live. Aside from the fact that it is quite uncommon to broadcast live this kind of events, they were not expecting more than a regular crash test. No one expected to see the flashback of the dummies living happily as a real family, and to identify themselves emotionally just before the terrible impact.

Describe the execution

The campaign was executed together with the Utac-Ceram, the test facility in charge of the crash-test organization and commissioned by the Road Safety Organisation. With their help, we were able to reproduce the real conditions of an accident with non-attached people in a car, and to use the data captured by the dummies sensors. We analyzed them with the help of a traumatologist to tell the real consequences, physical and psychological, of the accident. The car of our Dummy Family was captured by 4 internal and 4 external cameras. We received their video streams and were able to automate the edit in real-time by knowing timings and angles in advance. This way, we were able to inject in the edit the sequence of the family flashbacks where we wanted and broadcast it.

List the results

The crash-test on Facebook live was seen more than 396,000 times.? Over 6,890,000 people were exposed to the message and there are more than 5,000 shares on the entire story. The various publications generated hundreds of poignant comments reflecting the power of the message. Most people talked of the dummies as if they were real humans. The engagement rate on the Road Safety Organisation’ Facebook account reached 7% (vs an average of 2%). TV Channels and press journalists were present during the crash-test and widely relayed the operation.