After many attempts to curb excessive honking on Mumbai’s roads, Mumbai Police did what fines couldn’t - change behaviour with a dash of humour. They turned traffic signals into Punishing Signals, with instant results. Thanks to the PR strategy, it became the most Liked & Shared and #1 Indian topic. Also reached 35 countries via 1000+ news mentions. All, at zero media spend.

With a PR approach that made it viral, it furthered the behaviour change it sought to affect in India, resonated with the world, and took Mumbai Police’s approval rating to an all-time high.

Situation:

Mumbai has 1675 vehicles/km. In this fast-paced city, motorists are in a tearing hurry. Resulting in traffic jams and indiscipline. Like excessive honking. In fact, vehicle owners fit extra loud horns than standard to navigate through teeming traffic. But law enforcement couldn’t enforce enough, with just 1293 people booked in the last 10 years. Their awareness campaigns like “No Honking Day”, “HornVrat” and “Horn Not OK Please” as well as the efforts of the environmental NGO, the Awaaz Foundation, couldn’t cut through to their audience. In the last decade, while vehicles on the road have increased, so has honking – 18 million times/hour.

Brief & Objective:

70% of noise pollution on roads still happens due to indiscriminate honking. Affecting citizens’ physical and mental health. After many attempts to curb it, the Mumbai Police's brief: Come up with the creative solution (our own idea) for instant results and maximum awareness.

As per W.H.O, 1.6 billion healthy years are lost to disorders and early death due to the physical and mental effects of noise pollution. And 70% of noise pollution on Mumbai’s roads is due to excessive honking. Especially at the traffic signals. The creative solution was to change this civic behaviour but with an unexpected dash of humour from one of India’s biggest law enforcement agencies - the Mumbai Police. Instead of them punishing the perps, they had the traffic signals become Punishing Signals. If honking at a ‘red’ signal crossed 85 decibels (dangerous), the countdown timer resets. Making the impatient motorists wait longer. As they wait, interactive OOH displays linked to the signal push LIVE messages, highlighting their bad behaviour with a wink and a smile. Thus making the motorists honk responsibly for the signal to turn green.

The Punishing Signal activation resulted in localised behaviour change at select Mumbai signals with a dash of humour and humanity. The key message of “honk more, wait more” complemented the activation well to achieve that.

The PR strategy was to take this message to a larger group of Mumbai’s citizens in order to boost awareness, behaviour change, and impact.

So the key focus of the PR mix was to cut an interesting film of the whole activation, maintaining the same tone of humour. It was achieved by using the typical funny-sounding delivery of a Mumbai traffic cop for the narration; with subtitles in English (and later in regional languages) for wider comprehension. All PR activity & engagement was then channelised to have this film garner maximum eyeballs and mileage, organically.

The PR strategy was executed on 31 Jan 2020. The Punishing Signal film was shared on Mumbai Police’s official Twitter (5 Million followers). Then, a Press Release package was designed containing the film, behind-the-scene pics, news-bites from Mumbai’s Police & Traffic Commissioners. It was shared with the ‘city news’ beat of Mumbai’s top media publications. Gauging a positive response quickly, the package was sent to select media houses across India - focussing on the metros that experienced indiscriminate honking, daily. Also sent to news wires for wider reach.

Parallelly, select public figures (with big follower count and frequent association with Mumbai Police’s initiatives) were engaged to tweet the film or retweet the original post, pro bono.

Subsequent social media buzz across the nation and coverage by the foreign press was organic. Thereby amplifying the PR efforts till 29 Feb 2020. All, at zero media spend.

Assessed average honking dBs at Punishing Signals a week before and a month after roll-out: 32% decrease (a big plus for mental and olfactory health).

P Ashok (Mumbai Police) announced further roll-out in 10 locations of Mumbai; then to the entire traffic system - CNN, 5 Feb 2020

KTR Rao (Telangana Minister) and Police Heads announced a roll-out in Hyderabad city, identifying 16 locations - The Times of India, 1 Feb 2020

B Rao (City Commissioner) announced a roll-out in Bengaluru city - The Times of India, 2 Feb 2020

District Collector LK Jatav announced a roll-out in Indore city, for “Silent City” tag - The Times of India, 15 Feb 2020

While it had instant on-ground results, its film tweeted by Mumbai Police led to 6.6 Billion Impressions.

It was Most Liked & Shared and #1 Indian topic, all social media taken.

News outlets in 35 countries - The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN etc. - covered it in 1000+ articles.

All, at zero media spend.

Mumbai Police’s approval rating reached an all-time high.