Transcript DfT Speed phase 2 Qualitative Research Debrief 23.09.08 OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS Objectives and Methodology Overview Script responses Conclusions and Recommendations.

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DfT Speed phase 2
Qualitative Research Debrief
23.09.08
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OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS
Objectives and Methodology
Overview
Script responses
Conclusions and Recommendations
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Objectives and Methodology
The Research Challenge
KEY RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
To identify the most motivating, engaging and relevant
strategic platform for DfT to encourage slower, more
responsible driving within a given speed limit
To develop a compelling execution of the platform in
order to maximise impact on behaviour
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Our Approach
Our approach - an overview
Stage 1a: Gathering context and fine-tuning
territories
Stage 1 Uncovering
Territories
Bulletin board
Stage 1b: Understanding driving worlds and
exploring territories. Identifying most
motivating territories
Individual and paired ‘destination’ depths
Mini groups
Stage 2 Creative
Development
Stage 2: Identifying and optimising the most
powerful creative routes
Mini-groups preceded by individual depth
interviews with each respondent
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Sample & Methodology
x8 mini groups
(6 participants)
Stage
2
Speeding
attitude
Demographics / lifestage
Location &
predominant road type
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Spread
Females, 30-39 C2D (with children)
North (rural)
2
Spread
Females 40-60 C2D (mix with
children/empty nest)
South Wales (urban)
3
Spread
Females 22-29 BC1 (mix with/without
children)
Greater London (rural)
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Spread
Females 17-21 C2D (pre children)
Midlands (urban)
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Spread
Males 30-39 BC1 (with children)
Greater London
(urban)
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Spread
Males 17-21 BC1 (pre children)
South Wales (rural)
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Spread
Males 40-60 BC1 (mix with
children/empty nest)
North (urban)
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Spread
Males 22-29 C2D (mix with/without
children)
Midlands (rural)
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Sample & Methodology
Further Criteria:
All respondents admitted driving faster than the speed limit on
occasion
DfT ‘Impatience index’ will be used as part of recruitment
questionnaire to help identify correct speeding typology
A broad spectrum of car types will be covered
A proportion of sample will drive as part of their job
All screened for confidence / articulacy
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Sample & Methodology
Project team
David Burrows – Director
Richard Hall – Project Director
Divya Ghelani– Research Executive
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Overview
The Way Forward
Some of the big themes identified in Stage 1
PUNCTURING THE BUBBLE OF ‘ME’
CHALLENGING THE DISCOURSE OF
CONTROL, CHOICE AND FREEDOM
CHALLENGING APPRAISAL OF RISK
AND PERSONAL RELEVANCE
DEVELOPING RATIONAL AND
EMOTIONAL MESSAGING WHICH IS
MUTUALLY COMPLEMENTARY
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Mapping the Various Scripts/Approaches
CONSEQUENCES
LIVE WITH IT
JOANNA
30/40
RATIONAL
NO
EXCUSES
GOOD
DRIVER
IMPACT
EMOTIONA
L
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Script responses
Good Drivers
Good drivers
This ad would be shot from the point of view of the driver
of a car as it makes its way through an ordinary, built up
urban environment. We see from the speedometer that it’s
doing 40mph. At various points of the journey our
attention would be drawn to various potential things that
could cause accidents: kids running along the pavement,
an ice-cream van pulled up at the side of the road, a car
that’s double parked, a motor-bike coming out of a side
road, a bus stopping at a bus stop, a kid cycling toward us,
other cars swerving as they come toward us, etc.
As we see this we hear a V.O.
V.O. THIS IS AN AD FOR ROAD SAFETY.
IT’S AIMED AT BAD DRIVERS.
NOT YOU.
YOU’RE A GOOD DRIVER.
YOU’RE IN CONTROL.
THIS AD IS FOR DRIVERS WHO AREN’T IN
CONTROL.
THE ONES THAT SOMETIMES GET DISTRACTED BY
THEIR
KIDS IN THE BACK.
THAT DON’T KNOW THEIR LOCAL ROADS VERY
WELL.
THE ONES THAT GET COMPLACENT.
THE ONES WHO DRIVE TOO FAST
NOT YOU.
YOU MIGHT EXCEED THE SPEED LIMIT
OCCASIONALLY,
BUT YOU’VE GOT THE REACTIONS TO COPE
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS UNEXPECTEDLY
SO YOU DON’T NEED TO……
At this point we see a person who has appeared a good bus
length away. Our driver reacts quickly and slams on the
brakes. But it’s no use: the pedestrian is smashed over the
bonnet of the car and into the windscreen. We have
already seen from the speedometer earlier that the driver
was doing nearly 40. The accident has taken us completely
by surprise. We were distracted looking at one of the other
potential hazards.
VO: LAST YEAR GOOD DRIVERS KILLED 727 PEOPLE ON
BRITISH ROADS BECAUSE THEY WERE DRIVING TOO
FAST.
SUPER: IT’S 30 FOR A REASON. THINK!
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Good Drivers
At best a reminder of driving basics, at worst accusatory,
even sarcastic
Younger drivers
Too close to the education
experience
Precisely what they seek to rebel
against
Situations that should come as
second nature to a ‘good driver’
Older drivers
Stating the obvious assumed to be for
poorly trained young driver
Ultimately, loaded with assumptions the driver feels
instinctively compelled to reject, presumed to be aimed at
someone else
Not a speeding ad
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Good Drivers
Furthermore, lack of emotional impact reduces any sense
of speeding as a significant element
All about physical impact (including the recessive
statistic endline)
AND
No sense of emotional consequences
Different endings add a good element of surprise – keep
the idea fresh
BUT
Superficial and failing to probe on responsibility and
guilt
Could work for a campaign on attentiveness but not
delivering a compelling reason to slow down
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Good Drivers
A flavour of the response
“Over-creative, too clever.
Makes me think of those
simulators or those hazard
awareness games. Good for
someone who has just passed
their test.”
Males, 30, London
“I don’t think the ad is good
because how do they know
what is a good driver. ”
Males, 17-21, Wales
“If you wanted
me to listen to
the message a
fourth and a fifth
time, you’d have
to change the
ending.”
Male, 40-60,
Leeds
“I thought, ‘ There are 60
million people who live in the
UK. More people die of natural
causes … more people die of
dog bites! ‘ ”
Males, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“When someone says, ‘You
can’t eat that apple,’ you want
to eat it. ”
Males, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“It’s quite sarcastic playing on
the good driver thing, because
we all think we are a good
driver. ”
Males, 17-21, Sutton Coldfield
“Takes me
back to the
Lucky ad and
makes me
want to flick
over.”
Females, 4060, Wales
“It’s like taking a hazard
awareness test again. ”
Males, 17-21, Sutton Coldfield
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Script responses
No excuses
This ad features a series of accidents moments after they
have occurred. They are shot to be very still and quiet, the Subtitle: I was speeding.
way you feel moments after seeing something incredibly
shocking.
Cut to yet another terrible accident. A man is talking
towards a Paramedic who is desperately trying to save a
In the first we see a man rush out of his car to the
man’s life.
woman’s body which is lying on the tarmac not moving.
The driver looks distraught but when he sees the witnesses MAN: There was nothing I could do.
on the pavement he looks up and says…..
Subtitle: I was speeding.
MAN: I never saw her
Cut to our final accident. We see a woman who is being
As he says this a subtitle appears at the bottom of the
questioned by a Policeman who is taking notes.
screen.
WOMAN: I was only doing thirty.
Subtitle: I was speeding.
Subtitle: I was doing forty.
Cut to another horrific accident scene in which the driver
looks across to a mother who drops everything and is
At this point the sound kicks back in and we see the driver
running as fast as she can to get to her son.
begin to sob at what she has done. We hear the noise of
sirens as we close on her terrified face. A super appears.
MAN: He came out of nowhere
Subtitle: I was speeding.
SUPER: THERE ARE NO EXCUSES
IT’S 30 FOR A REASON.
Cut to the aftermath of another accident. Here the woman
THINK!
is gesturing to a group of school kids who have just
witnessed the friend being run over.
WOMAN: It wasn’t my fault.
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Script responses
Slight tone of condescension prompts defensive response
Portraying childish behaviour
creates subconscious,
childish response –
an instinctive reaction to
assumptions not clearly
evidenced
Maybe it was the pedestrian’s
fault anyway
By not envisioning the cause of the incident, the viewer is
given opportunity to question the authority of the piece
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Script responses
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Despite conceptual problem, some useful minor executional
take-outs
Repetition leading to less
receptivity – a campaign to
screen out
Presence of the law strongest
disincentive for some
Use of sound to heighten
impact
A route in for all drivers,
varied scenarios of situational
(but not emotional)
identification
Despite strong elements repetition of simple idea makes
narrative / overall idea feel a little thin
Script responses
But overall, a script that probes on periphery rather than
goes for the jugular
Focus on the excuses,
NOT
the cause of the excuses
May challenge part of driver mindset
BUT
Drivers can, and will, find many
compelling reasons to speed
A rational rather than emotional case easily rejected by the
right brain
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Script responses
A flavour of the response
“Makes you think there is no
excuse for it and no matter
how much you lie to other
people, you will always know
the truth yourself.”
Female, 17-21, Sutton Colfield
“A lot of blokes have the idea
that a car is like a little baby
for them – if they see that ad it
would be better for them.”
Female, 17-21, Sutton
Coldfield
“Lads our age don’t like
authority figures. I’ve been to
school and grown up. I don’t
need to be getting told off.”
Male, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“You’re getting a bollocking for
something you haven’t already
done!”
Male, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“I got three points when my
daughter was young because I
didn’t know if they were going
to keep her late at school. The
thought of her stood on the
roadside, I just decided I had
to get there.”
Female, 30-39, Leeds
“It’s just like the other ads - …
the Lucky one with the girl
against the tree.”
Male, 30-39, London
“Back to the whole blame thing,
really. It’s a bit Johnny
predictable.”
Males, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield.
“For me there are too many
images. Were there 4? “
Females, aged 22-29, London
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Script responses
30/40
This commercial is shot from the point of view of the driver.
hurts and they’re dealng with the situation in a controlled
manner. They talk to the driver as they work.
The screen is split in two and in one screen we see the car going
down a tree lined suburban street, at the top of which is a church. 40 driver: the ambulance arrives and the paramedics are
In the corner of the screen a speedometer shows he’s doing
frantically trying to resuscitate the man on the ground. They stare
40mph.
at the driver as he tries to explain away his guilt.
The other screen shows the same driver on the same road. In the Suddenly we hear a scream and with the 30 driver we see a
corner of the screen a speedometer shows he’s doing 30mph.
young woman push through the crowd and run to her
husband/brother on the ground. He calms her down. He’s hurt but
Let’s call them the 40 driver and the 30 driver.
he’s o.k. The police arrive.
The 40 driver is behind the 30 driver but is catching up rapidly. At 40 driver: the woman screams in anguish and pushes through the
the point where the 40 driver is level with the 30 driver, a
crowd. She realizes that her husband/brother is dead. She’s
pedestrian steps out into the road.
distraught.
Both cars slam on the brakes as hard as they can. The 40 driver’s 30 driver: the police arrive and take control of the situation. They
car hits the pedestrian first. Then the 30 driver’s car hits the
begin to question the driver. It’s reasonably relaxed and low key.
pedestrian, but not as forcefully.
Nobody died.
We then see the aftermath of the crash as the pictures start to
diversify. The drivers get out of the cars and are obviously
distraught.
40 driver: the police arrive just as the woman realizes who the
driver is. She’s frozen in utter disbelief and shock. She can’t stop
staring at the driver.
The 30 driver runs to the man who is on the ground but is still
conscious and is able to speak. The man on the ground is saying
‘sorry I didn’t see you.’ A crowd gathers. A siren can be heard.
30 driver: the crowd disperses and the ambulance drives away.
The police get back into their cars and the driver gets back into
his car. He’s given them all his particulars.
The 40 driver has to run a lot further to the smashed up body
40 driver: the woman is put in the ambulance with her dead
lying in the road. The man is obviously dead. The driver is saying husband and we see the driver being escorted to the police car by
to anyone that will listen ‘I didn’t see him’.
three policemen.
30 driver: we see the ambulance arrive and the paramedics
helping the man on the ground. The man is telling them where it V.O.: Its 30 for a reason. Think.
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Script responses
Dramatisation of parallel incident(s) focusses on moment
of choice over consequences
40 driver
Hell / Evil
A horrible scene made emotionally no
worse by the presence of the 30
scenario
CHOICE
30 driver
Heaven / Good
YET
30 scene is NOT heaven – a barrier to
identification – (driving, even within
the law, is a permanent risk)
Message of ‘You have a choice’ posing right question BUT
NOT offering new way to really grasp why
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Script responses
Behind seemingly complex execution lies a simple idea
Visually complex
A before and after
AND
Right and wrong
YET
Conceptually simple
Quiet, literal and rational
message laced with emotional
elements
Sounds sophisticated and
multi-layered, as if requiring
interpretation
Visual complexity focusses attention on executional elements
rather than emotional imperative to slow down
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Script responses
Elements of execution remove the viewer from the notion
of consequences
Computer game split-screen
construct an unfortunate
association
Point of View useful to
eliminate situational driver
identification
Split screen technique
dominating script, no single
powerful image or thought
Presence of the police a
reminder of the law as a
penalty
Despite some positives here, other scripts offer more
powerful routes into similar spaces
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Script responses
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Overall a familiar message that remains in the living room not working hard enough to puncture the emotional heart of
the driver bubble
Doing due diligence to
emotional impact
BUT
The mechanics of the scenario
dominate
The familiar get outs of risk
and personal relevance
resurface
More of a gentle evolution of Lucky rather than bold step
forward to challenge the right brain speeder
Script responses
A flavour of the response
“if you killed someone you are
a murderer. If you hit someone
at 30 you break their arm and
feel bad. But at 40, you feel
responsible.”
Males, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“The 30/40 thing. You already
know it by now.”
Females, 17-21, Sutton
Coldfield
“The man was within the
speed limit and he still hit
someone. I still think that
person would be in trouble for
hitting someone.”
Females, 17-21, Sutton
Coldfield
“It might have been the
pedestrian’s fault, even when
she was doing 30. whatever
speed you’re doing, it’s not
your fault sometimes.”
Males, 17-21, Wales
“Two parallel stories would
make you think more than a
comparative one.”
Females, 40-60, Wales
“It’s good. I still think though
that if you’re driving at 30, you
should not get into trouble for
it.”
Females, 22-29, London
“Visually this could be quite
good to watch! Like a game on
your XBox.”
Males, 30-39, London
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Script responses
Joanna
This ad features the people whom a death caused by
speeding affects. The husband, parents, brothers and
sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents and friends. All the
people that a fatal accident ripples out to. We see them
and hear their heartfelt remembrances of the person
involved in the accident. We also see images of the
accident scene.
Cut to the accident. Paramedics crouched over a body.
DAD: I don’t think any of us will ever come to terms with it
Cut to the accident. We see the woman driver who is being
questioned by a Policeman who is taking notes. It is
Joanna. We see behind her the man she has knocked down
being stretchered in to the ambulance.
We see from the POV of the driver as a car goes down a
suburban street. We see the speedometer climb above 30 Fade to Joanna who is staring off into space, her husband
miles per hour.
comes to sit beside her, he calls out her name but she is
too traumatized to notice.
MUM: Joanna wouldn’t hurt a fly.
HUSBAND: Joanna?
Cut to Joanna’s best friend.
He tries to comfort her. We hear his voice.
ANNA: She was the life and soul of the party, always the
first one on the dance floor, not any more.
HUSBAND: My wife nipped down to the shops…and never
really came back.
Cut to a horrific accident scene. A body bounces onto the
windscreen cracking it as it does so. We hear Joanna’s
SUPER: SPEEDING CAN DESTROY MORE THAN JUST ONE
brother.
LIFE
THINK! IT’S 30 FOR A REASON
BROTHER: Joanna wasn’t just my sister, she was my best
friend, and now she’s gone.
Cut to her Grandma.
WOMAN: Things will never be the same again.
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Joanna
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‘Joanna’ has considerable strengths at both core idea
and executional level
CORE IDEA
EXECUTION
Focus on CONSEQUENCES
Unexpectedness of THE TWIST
Potential to prompt
UNIVERSAL identification
EMOTIONALLY powerful
resolution
Playing in the right idea space
to hit home with drivers
An approach with clear
potential to SURPRISE,
DISRUPT, PROVOKE THOUGHT
Tapping a rich vein of emotion: for many across the sample, really
getting under skin, deeply affecting; for some (esp. ygr males)
not direct enough, even a bit too subtle
Joanna
A flavour of overall response
“you would end up having a
nervous breakdown. I don’t
think that’s far-fetched and I
don’t think that’s an
exaggeration.”
Male, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“You’d start to get depressed,
your job, your family would be
affected by this downward
spiral.”
Males, 30-39, London
“You all know at some
point that you’ll have
to deal with the
passing away of loved
ones. But you’re not
prepared to think
you’ll kill someone
with your car.”
Female, 30-39,
London
“It’s family-orientated
with close
relationships. Makes
me think I should cut
my speed. Shows you
outcomes.”
Males, 40-60, Leeds
“The thought of locking my loved ones out
scares me. This makes you FEEL like you’ve
actually run someone over.”
Sutton Coldfield, 22-29, Males
“You’re going to crucify
both families.”
Males, 40-60, Leeds
“When the husband says he
went to the shops but never
really came back, she is still
here but not the same, I
imagine her to be walking
through life like a zombie.”
Female, 17-21, Sutton
Coldfield
“It’s not just the family that
has lost a person, you’d be
dead on the inside, none of
your mates would want to
know you.”
Male, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“I thought, ‘I’m going to lose my
license.’ I never really thought
“It’s less about guilt, it’s more
from the POV of being involved
psychological, you’d have to
in an accident.”
lock even loved ones out.”
Males, 40-60, Leeds
Females, 30-39, Leeds
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Joanna: Key strengths of the creative idea
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Currently, the TWIST is in many ways the pivotal
element of the idea
SET-UP
Familiar, comfortable, almost banal
TWIST
Reversal of expectations: cognitively and emotionally jarring
Forces reappraisal
of comfortable
certainties:
‘That driver could
be any of us…’
Leads to emotional power
of final scene:
Viewer experiences some
of Joanna’s shock and
disorientation
An effective way to break with ‘familiar’ codes of Speed
communication: really draws you in, hard to remain indifferent or
blasé
Joanna: Key strengths of the creative idea
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Focus on CONSEQUENCES feels extremely resonant territory
Rippling out to friends and
family: suggests the wider
‘social ecosystem’ to which
we all belong
Joanna now defined by her
absence, her emotional
numbness/’deadness’
Begins to suggest the
breadth of people touched by
death by speeding
Not only does she have to
bear the guilt of this, but she
is now shut off from those
who love her
Effect heightened by
mirroring the form and
content of funeral eulogies
Suggestion that this will be
what she has to live with for
ever: ‘…and never really
came back’
We can all relate to these situations, and thus to this
predicament: audience can project own feelings onto the blank
canvas of Joanna’s traumatised state
Joanna: Issues with the creative idea
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There are some issues preventing the current execution from
being even more effective or powerful in dramatising the
CONSEQUENCES of speeding…
Focus on Joanna’s friends and
family (esp. when eulogising
her)
Can cushion the sense of
awfulness at what Joanna’s
future life might be like: ie.
she clearly has a strong
support network to help her
get through this
Consider less blandly positive
appraisal of her? (also to move
beyond clichés of current
‘remembrances’)
Sense of Joanna as totally
self-absorbed (again, in
context of friends and family
who are there for her)
Can suggest a casual
indifference to suffering of
victim’s friends and family
Not dominant in audience
response, but worth seeing if
this effect can be minimised in
final treatment
Questions can be addressed in optimising execution (esp.
important to deal with issue around the ‘real’ victim )
Joanna
A flavour of some of the issues
“They say she was the life and
soul of the party but what
about the victim?’ You just
think, ”What about the victim?”
Male, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“Did not fool me at all. I would
suggest they make the whole
thing less cliché.”
Females, 22-29, London
“The phrases are cliched,
artificial. If they were different,
then the ad would be
fantastic.”
Female, 22-29, London
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Joanna: Summary evaluation of potential
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‘Joanna’ is successfully dramatising many of the elements
which Stage 1 research recommended for the Think!
Speeding campaign
Clear potential to puncture the ME bubble, via appeal to
wider society
Has a universality which is able to disrupt the cliché of
the kind of person who kills by speeding
Non-judgemental and non-accusatory (avoiding an
overt discourse of social responsibility): but does it
push far in the other direction, treating the perpetrator
with too much sympathy??
Evokes the consequences for the driver: a life which
will never be the same again
Currently speaking more universally to women than men, but
seems able to address a broad swathe of driver targets
Joanna: Thoughts on optimisation
Optimisation of ‘Joanna’ would want to look at:
Dialling down the cliché in friends and family eulogies:
capturing biographical detail, but possibly with less
overt (positive) judgement?
Somehow avoid any lingering sense that the victim is
merely a footnote in Joanna’s story
Avoid a sense of excessive ‘softness’ or cushioning in
how Joanna is seen to be treated. The audience needs
to be left in no doubt that she is feeling not just numb
but guilt, shame, etc.
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Script responses
Live with it
Open on a regular bloke driving along a quiet road. We see and once more sees the accident, still as real as it was
his speedometer edge over 30 and up to 40 as he speeds then, laid out in his backyard. This time he sees his young
up a little going around a corner, then he suddenly slams self, still in shock, staring back at him across the years.
the brakes but can’t stop hitting a young boy who’s run out
into the road.
VO: Kill someone while speeding and you’ll have to live
with it.
He gets out of his car and walks around to see the boy in a
pool of his own blood lying on the street. His face contorts LOGO: THINK!
with horror at what he’s done.
Title: It’s 30 for a reason.
We now cut to him sitting in a police station, still bloodied
after the accident as an officer questions him. He tries to
answer but we see him look over in pain and the exact
same accident scene is spread out all over the station floor.
The man gasps as he sees the same boy being
unsuccessfully resuscitated by paramedics but no one else
notices a thing – the gruesome scene is only real to him as
he continually relives it.
Cut to him a year after, having a dinner with his family. A
shadow descends over his face as he rubs a scar on his
forehead. He looks over and again we see the accident
scene now in the middle of the busy restaurant. The dead
boy’s mother and father sob uncontrollably behind a police
line, contrasting with his own family’s elation.
Cut to the man twenty years later, looking much older and
sitting in the garden of a lovely home as his kids play. He
suddenly sees blood seeping along the ground at his feet
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Live with It
‘Live with it’ has undeniable power: almost forces the
viewer to engage with it in some way
CORE IDEA
EXECUTION
Direct and unremitting focus
on CONSEQUENCES
FILMIC, GRAPHIC, INTENSE
Identification (or aversion)
through force of emotion
Extended time period feels
attention grabbing (vs.
moment focus of other road
safety ads)
Immensely fertile territory to
cut through driver
complacency
Filmic quality gives script a
scale and intensity befitting the
notion of CONSEQUENCES
Though some recoil in horror, ‘Live with it’ has wide impact
across the sample: marrying a deeply resonant insight (how bad
you’d feel) with compelling executional treatment
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Live with It
A flavour of overall response
“This one feels more dramatic
than the other one. This feels
like a long ad. It’s showing the
consequences more. There are
different occasions too,
showing you that it does go
on and on.”
Female, 17-21, Sutton
Coldfield
“I thought this was another
trick but this is human nature
and you’d go back to it again
and again.”
Female, 22-29, St Albans
“What hits home is that 20
years down the line, this will
still give you nightmares.”
Female, 17-21, St Albans
“You joke about it don’t you,
how many points for that man,
but you’d never say that about
a kid.”
Male, 40-60, Leeds
“With the Joanna one, you have family and
how family feel. With this one it was about
how the man feels himself. I found it more
effective than the other one with its cliched
comments.”
Female, 22-29, St Albans
“A lot more in your face, a lot
more hard-hitting.”
Male, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
“He could never really engage
with life, it would always be
there.”
Female, 40-60, South Wales
“Really makes you think the
jump to forty is really quite
high.”
Female, 40-60, Wales
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Live with It: Key strengths of the creative idea
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Further confirmation that focus on CONSEQUENCES is
extremely resonant territory
2 distinct ways that this is being done here:
Very explicit dramatisation of
the feeling of having to live it
The longevity of living with it:
your whole life
Etched in your memory
(emotional scar to match his
physical scar)
Not only absolute length of
time, but the lifestages
encompassed along the way
Sense that the memory will
come back to haunt you at
any moment (you have no
control over it)
Directly mirrors a ‘life
sentence’
Allows audience across
various lifestages to project
themselves into the ad
Where ‘Joanna’ emphases the breadth of consequences (rippling
out), ‘Live with It’ heightens sense of the temporal dimension –
its neverending-ness. This feels ultimately more scary
Live with It: Key strengths of the creative idea
‘Live with It’ picks up 2 key themes identified as key
speeding issues in Stage 1
MYTH OF CHOICE AND
CONTROL
One wrong choice
And now a lifetime of not
choosing when or how the
memory of it will come back
to haunt him
An emotional life now out of
his control
APPRAISAL OF RISK AND
REWARD
Awfulness of what he is now
living with magnifies the
apparently small risk that
something might happen
Extremely thought-provoking
for drivers
“It just wasn’t worth it was it. You don one stupid
thing, and you get all that in return. Really makes
you think about the choices you make.”
Males, 22-29, Sutton Coldfield
41
Live with It: Key strengths of the creative idea
42
‘Live with It’ works at a higher emotional pitch than all
other scripts researched
Through the SCENARIOS
‘invaded’ by memory
Scenes of everyday
enjoyment: easy to identify
with
Scene with children is especially
strong: for parents AND
potential parents – unbearable
thought of being unable to
relate to children normally (and
of eg. losing their respect, etc.)
being judged
The WAY memory is depicted
Very direct, graphic, invasive
STRENGTHS: Vividness adds
to shock, impact (and
memorability) of execution
POTENTIAL ISSUE: Some
sense this treatment
pushes too far into horror –
‘genre’ can keep things at a
remove
Hard-hitting emotion is central to power of ‘Live with It’, but there
is an opportunity to dial down the physical (visceral) elements,
upweighting elements which may cut, ultimately, deeper
Live with It: Key limitations of the creative idea
43
Related to the above is some sense that ‘Live with It’
overemphasises the internal suffering of one individual at
the expense some wider sense of the social impact
MAN ALMOST LOCKED IN A PRISON CELL OF HIS OWN GUILT
Potential to bring out more sense of his interactions - eg:
-flashback of face of boy he’s killed/screaming mother?
-his own kid’s worried/quizzical look when he has a flashback???
‘Live with It’ provides an immensely powerful sense of temporal
consequence – providing opportunity to hang slightly more sense
of the wider ramifications on those around him
Live with It
A flavour of some of the issues
“You could make it a bit more
real, not just some random
boy, you’d see his face.”
Male, 17-21, South Wales
“It does really hit you, but
you’re focusing more on the
blood and guts, rather than
who the kid was, what he was
like.”
Male, 40-60, Leeds
“With that one it was about
how a man feels about himself,
I found the other [Joanna]
more effective.”
Female, 22-29, St Albans
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Live with It: Summary evaluation of potential
‘Live with It’ is very successfully dramatising
CONSEQUENCES which is such an impactful angle to help
shift attitudes towards to speeding
Research suggests it will have particular impact among
males, but with potential to cut across a wide audience
base (esp. Thrillseekers and Deliberate Speeders)
It has an emotional impact which suggests ability to
cut through the driver ‘bubble’, and lodge long in the
memory
It has a directness which is unambiguous – helping to
ensure clear take out (both about the dangers of
speeding, and that you’ll have to live with it)
It can build on previous THINK! work, but taking it to
an emotionally higher level
45
‘Live with It’: Thoughts on optimisation
Optimisation of ‘Live with It’ would want to look at:
Consider dialling back some of the blood and gore, and
introducing more emotional (vs. visceral) triggers
Consider introducing more social dimensions to avoid
sense that this is his problem alone – and heighten
sense of shame
Avoid such an out and out horror genre treatment that
the style of the execution undermines the emotional
realism and relatability the audience is currently
imagining
46
47
Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclusions and Recommendations
Research strongly endorses the focus on CONSEQUENCES of
speeding as an enormously effective way of getting through
to drivers across a spectrum of driver typologies:
By the far the strongest scripts, ‘Joanna’ and ‘Live with It’,
dramatise CONSEQUENCES, and do so in extremely successful
ways
48
Conclusions and Recommendations
CONSEQUENCES
LIVE WITH IT
JOANNA
30/40
RATIONAL
NO
EXCUSES
GOOD
DRIVER
IMPACT
EMOTIONA
L
49
Joanna: Summary evaluation of potential
50
‘Joanna’ is successfully dramatising many of the elements
which Stage 1 research recommended for the Think!
Speeding campaign
Clear potential to puncture the ME bubble, via appeal to
wider society
Has a universality which is able to disrupt the cliché of
the kind of person who kills by speeding
Non-judgemental and non-accusatory (avoiding an
overt discourse of social responsibility): but does it
push far in the other direction, treating the perpetrator
with too much sympathy??
Evokes the consequences for the driver: a life which
will never be the same again
Currently speaking more universally to women than men, but
seems able to address a broad swathe of driver targets
Joanna: Thoughts on optimisation
Optimisation of ‘Joanna’ would want to look at:
Dialling down the cliché in friends and family eulogies:
capturing biographical detail, but possibly with less
overt (positive) judgement?
Somehow avoid any lingering sense that the victim is
merely a footnote in Joanna’s story
Avoid a sense of excessive ‘softness’ or cushioning in
how Joanna is seen to be treated. The audience needs
to be left in no doubt that she is feeling not just numb
but guilt, shame, etc.
51
Live with It: Summary evaluation of potential
‘Live with It’ is very successfully dramatising
CONSEQUENCES which is such an impactful angle to help
shift attitudes towards to speeding
Research suggests it will have particular impact among
males, but with potential to cut across a wide audience
base (esp. Thrillseekers and Deliberate Speeders)
It has an emotional impact which suggests ability to
cut through the driver ‘bubble’, and lodge long in the
memory
It has a directness which is unambiguous – helping to
ensure clear take out (both about the dangers of
speeding, and that you’ll have to live with it)
It can build on previous THINK! work, but taking it to
an emotionally higher level
52
‘Live with It’: Thoughts on optimisation
Optimisation of ‘Live with It’ would want to look at:
Consider dialling back some of the blood and gore, and
introducing more emotional (vs. visceral) triggers
Consider introducing more social dimensions to avoid
sense that this is his problem alone – and heighten
sense of shame
Avoid such an out and out horror genre treatment that
the style of the execution undermines the emotional
realism and relatability the audience is currently
imagining
53
The way forward
While both routes offer powerful emotional connection,
each prompts a different understanding of what that
impact could, and will, be
Live with it
Joanna
Filmic / epic scale
Eastenders
High pitch / big scale
Subtler yet devastating
Macbeth / intense
Kitchen sink
Explicit
Implicit
A ‘life’ sentence
No escape
An opportunity to recover
Possibility of coping
Both have enormous merit to move the THINK! Speeding
forward…
54
The way forward
The final decision will rest on a number of considerations
TARGETING
Live with It slightly more
effective with males (esp.
Ygr); and also with more
deliberate/thrillseeking
mindsets
Joanna slightly more
effective at suggesting
anyone could kill someone
whilst speeding
LONG-TERM STRATEGY
Live with It is more intense (more of a jolt vs previous
communication)
Joanna a bit more subtle (but has the twist – explicitly
disrupting expected communication codes)
But we feel both can do a very strong job of meeting the
communications challenge
55
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The End