Radio is one of the most traditional mediums going around.

But Spotify has changed the game, with its music streaming services replacing the normal radio breakfast and drive-time shows in most people's cars. (and the ad space that comes with them.)

We found a way to tap into this new media landscape with creative, geo-targeted audio messages that couldn't be ignored.

Road trauma is the biggest killer of those aged between 0 and 14.

As part of their regular Road Safety Calendar, the Australian Road Safety Foundation briefed us to develop a campaign to remind people to slow down to 40km/h around School Zones as kids returned to the classroom in 2021.

Despite flashing signage, highly visible road markings and pedestrian crossing Stop and Go volunteers, many drivers still speed through School Zones. In fact, recent research from national insurance company AAMI showed that nearly 50% of drivers admitted to speeding through School Zones.

Our objectives were:

- To make the fact that School Zones were back in operation top-of-mind for all drivers.

- Encourage a change in long-term behaviour regarding slowing down around School Zones

- Ensure there were no incidents or accidents in School Zones during our campaign period.

The budget for this campaign was small, but the ambition was large.

We knew a traditional message wouldn’t cut through in the way we needed it to, in order to drive behaviour change.

We needed a creative idea that would work 'in the moment' but also be shared socially, garner media coverage and get people talking - this ‘noise’ would get the fact School Zones were back in operation top-of-mind, without the need for a massive media budget.

Our research uncovered the fact that people had almost become blind to all of the visual cues around School Zones. We needed an innovative new way to deliver the right message to the right people at exactly the right time.

It would turn out that the use of an Audio Platform would provide the magic we needed to cut-through.

Our Target Audience was all Drivers, focusing on those without children and who weren't doing the school run. They had no idea that School Zones were back in operation and needed a reminder to slow down to 40 km/h.

It was pretty obvious that radio had a key role to play as it could talk to people while they were driving in their cars. But it seemed like a bit of a D-grade strategy.

We decided that it would be better to use Spotify as an innovative way in, and working with the Spotify Australia team we unlocked a way to geo-target drivers within 5km of a School Zone. Using postcode and address details of schools, we could target drivers with a relevant message in the right right place at the right time.

But we still needed a fresh creative idea to garner the social sharing and broader PR amplification.

We created a suite of 10 cut-through messages, that thanks to the magic of Spotify geo-targeting, were only served once Drivers were within 5km of a school zone.

We called them Slow Down Songs.

Each song would start at normal speed before dramatically slowing down allowing a message to be delivered as VO: “This Slow Down Song is to let you know that you are now near a School Zone, and will need to slow down to 40 when you enter it”.

We launched the project as kids returned to school for 2021.We hoped that by reminding people at this key time, their behaviour change would continue throughout the school year.

For budgetary reasons, we trialled Slow Down Songs in one state of Australia - Queensland. We wanted to see how the idea performed, and allow ourselves the opportunity to tailor the messaging/reach/frequency before ideally rolling out the project nationwide.

Over 100,000 Slow Down Songs were served via Spotify during our ‘Back to School’ Trial Period across Queensland.

No incidents or accidents occurred at any QLD School Zones during this period

Over $300,000 in earned media was achieved, across over 60 news outlets, creating the 'noise' we wanted to remind people that School Zones were back.

Our Slow Down Songs were donated by local artists and we created social video versions of the songs for the artists to share with over 200,000 followers.

National insurer AAMI supported the cause by donating the $2000 media cost for Spotify.

The Australian Road Safety Foundation has now gained approval for national roll-out in 2022.

The most successful behaviour change media campaigns occur when the right message is delivered to the right people at the right time. With Slow Down Songs we achieved that, and are hopeful that many young lives will be saved.