Alaska Highway Safety Office – Teen Driver Safety Week

Behavior Change Case Study

Situation
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States - ahead of all other types of injury, disease, or violence. In 2015, 1,972 teen passenger-vehicle drivers (15 to 18 years old) were involved in fatal traffic crashes, resulting in 2,207 deaths nationwide, of which 1,730 were teens. An estimated 99,000 teen drivers of passenger vehicles were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes.

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Objective
Our task was to supplement the national Teen Driver Safety Week campaign with an enhanced digital presence to educate youth about the five ways one can stay alive while driving; reach 60% of Alaska’s traditional high schools students via social media; and achieve a click-through-rate of at least 0.20%. We identified a long-term goal of a positive trend in YBRSS data as it relates to distracted (talking or texting while driving) and impaired driving among teens.

Strategy
Our messaging utilized concise, simple terms and images to communicate the “5 Ways to Arrive Alive” and addressed the five factors that put teens most at-risk for driving-related fatalities. In addition to digital ads targeting the issue as a whole, our creative imagery specifically addressed the most problematic risk behaviors and focused on gender differences in unsafe behavior between males and females: speeding among females, and impaired driving among males. For parents, our creative needed to reach them where they are and where the behavior takes place: in their cars. We chose radio as the primary channel and developed an educational script voiced by a teen who encouraged parents to be role models for the target behaviors.

 
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Evaluation
In just one week, we reached 93 percent of all Alaska’s teens using mobile in–app targeting, Facebook, and Instagram with a frequency of 4.69 times per teen on social media. On Facebook and Instagram, the carousel ads received 569 reactions, engagement by 916 individuals, and a CTR of 0.33%, exceeding our goal CTR of 0.20%. Statewide radio ran at 50% bonus in major markets.

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