THE SAFETY CAKE

TitleTHE SAFETY CAKE
BrandRENAULT
Product/ServiceROAD SAFETY
Category A03. Durable Consumer Goods including Automotive
Entrant MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement OMD Brussels, BELGIUM
PR MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Nicolas Mouquet mortierbrigade copywriter
Geoffrey Masse mortierbrigade Art Director
Joost / Philippe / Jens Berends / De Ceuster / Mortier mortierbrigade creative directors

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

Talking to drivers on the road isn’t difficult: radio and out-of-home networks are more than capable of doing so. But actually getting inside cars is something quite different. We managed to create something small and eye-catching which would be physically present inside each car.

Background

Situation Cars are getting safer every day thanks to new technologies becoming increasingly available on cars in every price range. Unfortunately, the people driving those cars aren’t changing as fast. So whilst our cars are getting safer, plenty of our drivers still maintain bad habits. Brief How do you make drivers realize that all the technology in the world won’t be any good if they still behave badly themselves? We had to make them understand that their behaviour behind the wheel is of vital importance when it comes to making our roads safer for everyone. Objectives - We aimed to make road safety a public issue again. This meant we had to ensure a broad coverage amongst Belgian drivers. - We wanted to actually change behaviour, so we had to find a way to get inside people’s cars.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Our insight is as simple as it is true: people drive safer when they’re transporting food. Whether you just went to get some Chinese take-out or stopped by a drive-thru window, you’re always that tad bit extra cautious when you’re driving around with food on the passenger seat. We translated this into our core idea: Treat your friends like a cake. Because if everybody would be driving around as if they had a fragile little cake next to them, our roads would be a whole lot safer. We created the Safety Cake: a cake specifically designed to make people drive safer since it can’t survive strong accelerations, fast turns, bumps and hard braking.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

In order to reach a broad audience we created short online videos describing all the kinds of driving the Safety Cake can’t handle and urging drivers to “treat their friends like a cake”. The cakes itself were distributed at dealerships and handed out to influencers. This way we actually got people to try it out themselves. A PR seeding strategy focusing on both national news outlets and online lifestyle magazines ensured the necessary media coverage on top of our limited paid efforts.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The campaign was launched through a national PR communication. First, we sent cakes to the most important journalists, specifically focussed on youth and road safety topics. The cake was delivered with a personalized note explaining the concept and a press kit. On August 29th we pitched the most important news media under embargo. Then, the next day, we sent a press release to the national press. Journalists started to share the story from August 30th and the story even made its way to international press in the following weeks. The PR campaign was supported by a social media posts on Responsible Young Drivers and Renaults Belgium-Luxemburg Facebook channels and later, through a distribution of cakes in Renault’s points of sale.

List the results (30% of vote)

The Safety Cake campaign was relayed on all major national news media, including prime-time TV & radio information. But it was also relayed in some important lifestyle media. As it covered almost the whole national media landscape, it also went beyond and get some international interest. The campaign was seen in 64 different countries for a total reach of 44.6 million. And it increased road safety awareness on social media by 300%. At this time, we are still waiting the official figures to see the impact of the Safety Cake on the number of road accidents among young people in Belgium. But it’s already safe to say we put road safety back on the public agenda and made our roads safer in doing so.