The New Zealand Police have always used traditional media to get their anti-speeding messages to the public. But considering our on-road deaths have stayed consistent for years, we didn’t need to just change the message, we needed to change the way we got the message across.

Music and road trips go hand in hand. So when we found out that songs between 60-80 BPM can make you more alert, focused, and slower behind the wheel of a car, it only made sense that we take over New Zealand’s largest radio network and create Spotify playlists to protect our roads.

Situation:

Kiwis love a long-weekend road trip. But unfortunately that means these long-weekends become some of the most dangerous times on New Zealand roads. We found that speed is still the biggest factor in vehicle deaths. It's clear traditional ‘slow down' messaging isn't working – as once a billboard goes by, it’s usually forgotten within seconds.

Brief/objective:

We needed to come up with an innovative way to talk to drivers during one of the deadliest weekends on New Zealand roads. Our objectives were to reach a hard-to-reach audience, get them to slow down, and in turn, contribute to a lower death toll.

Insight:

Throughout the ever-changing surroundings of a classic Kiwi road trip, one thing remains constant – music. We wanted to find a way to use the audio medium to deliver a message that stuck from point A to point B.

Studies from the London Metropolitan University and South China University found music has a big effect on the way we drive. Songs at a tempo of 60-80 BPM (beats per minute) keep us more alert, focused and helps us slow down behind the wheel.

So, the NZ Police created a safe driving tool that lasts the entire journey. A nationwide radio takeover, filled with 60-80 BPM songs to help keep Kiwis safe on the roads. Our continuous set of safe-driving tunes played across five stations throughout Easter. If radio wasn’t your thing, we also built Playlists on Spotify to live on forever.

Playlists consist of music between 60-80 BPM, beginning with low energy, low valence tunes to help you focus when leaving urban areas. We intermittently inserted higher valence songs to combat driver fatigue over long stretches. Finally, we overlayed popularity ratings to ensure we created playlists people would like.

While speeders are often young males, that doesn’t usually reflect in high volume weekends. So we targeted anyone and everyone behind the wheel of their car during the long Easter Weekend.

Based on the need to get mass audiences, the NZ Police partnered with MediaWorks, New Zealand’s largest media network, to create SURVIVE THE DRIVE FM. A nationwide radio takeover, playing songs that help save lives.

- Targeting All People 18+ (Drivers in NZ)

- Targeted high crash areas with calls to listen through social.

- Targeting playlists by genre to entice specific audiences.

We also needed to reach those who didn’t use the radio, so Spotify playlists were curated to ensure we had something for everyone.

We had a partnership with NZ’s highest reaching national radio network (MediaWorks) that over indexes against AP18+. We took over five radio stations across the long Easter weekend, curating playlists that exclusively featured 60-80 BPM tracks. Thus, creating Survive The Drive FM.

All content was supported by prommercials, sweepers and Social posts (NZ Police has an audience of 3m+ across owned channels) to drive people to listen live on air. This ran throughout the lead up to the long weekend from Monday 11th April – Monday 18th April. Our five major stations, The Breeze, The Rock, More FM, Mai and Magic, played continuous safe-driving songs throughout the deadliest period on New Zealand roads.

However, to increase our scale we also created Survive the Drive Playlists on Spotify – again seeding these out through social. These could (and can still) be played anytime, anywhere through the NZ Police Spotify channel.

Over the long weekend, our selected music played in cars nationwide, targeting high-risk crash zones. 1.98M drivers tuned in, with NZ Police’s Spotify following surging +826%.

Objective: Cut car crashes by 10% vs Easter 2021

Achievement: Slashed crashes nationwide by 28.5%, with key impacts:

1. High-risk areas saw 75% reduction.

2. National speeding average dropped 6%.

Discounting other influences:

• Driven by other activity? No other changes in comms.

• Less cars on the road? Traffic has increased year-on-year.

ROI:

While we can't entirely claim success, correlating traffic cam/police data showed a 3.8km/h (6%) speed drop. While that doesn’t sound high, research indicates a 1% decrease in speed produces a 4% decrease in crash risk, meaning we saw a 24% reduction in crash risk.

Conservatively, 50% attributed to advertising, Survive the Drive potentially cut crash risk by 12%.

Our proven method to alter driving behaviour, now lives on Spotify indefinitely.

Music and road trips go hand in hand. So when we found out that songs between 60-80 BPM can make you more alert, focused, and slower behind the wheel of a car, it only made sense that we take over New Zealand’s largest radio network and create Spotify playlists to protect our roads.

Audio was the only way we could get a message across that was relevant and constant for the entire journey.