This work is relevant for Creative Strategy because of exceptional interpretation of brand challenge and a breakthrough approach challenging traditional ways of working with public service announcements (PSAs). Together with the Danish Road Safety Council we managed to turn loads of information and a low interest topic into highly engaging entertainment, breaking down barriers within the public increasing both consideration and bike helmet use

Danes love their bikes. Copenhagen is the world’s most cycle-friendly city (World Economic Forum). The city has over 675,000 bicycles and just 120,000 cars, meaning bikes outnumber cars by more than five-to-one, almost one third (29%) of all journeys across Copenhagen made by bike.

One problem; helmets have never become as popular as cycling itself. Around 45% of casualties in Copenhagen met their end on a bike and only 47% of cyclists wears a helmet. The task is to get cyclists in cities age 25-55, primarily men, to wear a helmet.

The Danish Road Safety Council works with both short- and long-term objectives. The campaign is part of a yearlong effort of behavioural change lifting helmet use from 47% - 52% in 2023. Short-term objective is to increase awareness, messaging and liking, and whether the target group has done any reflections of or have been motivated towards wearing a helmet.

Why such apprehension towards putting on a helmet, when the safety-benefits of wearing one are so painfully obvious? In short: there's no good excuse for not wearing a helmet – but there is a very long list of poor ones. Data and insights indicated that most excuses have to do with vanity and a general tendency to think “It won’t happen to me, I am a responsible cyclist.” This confidence is a result of our culture. The Danes are thought traffic safety and biking from a very early age. Brilliant! but it has also strengthened our confidence to a point of arrogance when having the message retold as an adult – leaving barriers up and safety and helmet as low interest topics. So, simply being the Danish Road Safety Council challenges attention among the adult Danes. We needed to find a new way to engage people in a well-known message

From various consumer workshops and qualified data collection, we explored the reasoning for not wearing a helmet. All pointed towards vanity and exposed to us the pile of excuses for not wearing a helmet. Diving into these excuses we found that none of these measured the consequences of not wearing a helmet, making them all pretty poor actually listening to each and one of them.

The breakthrough moment arose when we researched the history of helmets. Denmark is a nation quite proud of our history, and the Viking age has very much become the symbol of our heritage. As representation of Denmark and to demonstrate our strength, we proudly wear Viking helmets at international events like football and Tour de France. Yet, entering the busy Danish bicycle lanes, we seem to have forgotten this, so we needed to remind the Danes that the helmet has always been a good idea.

The campaign poked gentle fun at those too vain to wear a helmet, by hanging all their poor excuses out to dry. And what better group to do this with, than someone who wore their helmets with pride? The Vikings.

The film takes place in a Viking village - year 893, where a raiding party's due to set sail to England. Before setting off, the Viking leader; Svend, announces to his co-Viking Hjalmar and the rest of his Viking army, that he won’t be needing his helmet because it is too itchy, wrecks his hair and that he is a safe rider of horses, never falls off. Thus, exposing all the common justifications cyclists use as excuses to not wear a helmet. Even though the setting is different, the excuses remain the same today –and with this film, it becomes evident for viewers just how bizarre these excuses really are

Turns out Svend, Hjalmar, and the rest of our fellow Vikings were an effective means to get helmet-usage on the radar amongst the bike- (and Viking-) loving Danes: Nine out of ten who had seen the film agreed with the main message, that wearing a helmet when biking is a good idea to protect your head. 86% had even reflected on the fact that wearing a helmet was more important than vanity. In fact, one-third of non-users were seriously considering purchasing a helmet after having seen the film - and 4% of non-users went ahead and did so after having seen the film. and How amazing is that!

Suffice to say, with an unusually high campaign-liking of 87%, 84% organic reach and one in five having talked to others about the campaign, humor and Vikings proved to be the perfect combination to promote good bike-helmet habits amongst the Danes.