Ogilvy stunt forces young drivers to check themselves before they wreck themselves—and others
The shock tactics directed at young drivers on TV don’t seem to have the desired effect anymore. So Ogilvy instead decided to use shock tactics with a hoax ad and a fake but fairly intense phone message to try and drive home the point that fast cars can be deadly.
As part of a Waitakere City Council awareness initiative to try and curb street racing, Ogilvy creatives Matt Williams and Freddie Coltart put a 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX, the performance car of choice for late-night illegal burns through West Auckland streets, for sale on a range of online trading sites for just $8,000. Ads were also posted in several newspapers and on the streets of Waitakere. The car itself also cruised the speeding hot spots donned with ‘For Sale’ stickers and the seller’s phone number.
Almost 1,000 boy racers enquired about the car in two weeks but they received something they weren’t expecting when they did—a voicemail message from ‘Jake’, a hysterical, crying ‘owner’ who had tragically killed a child by racing the car too fast (call 09 280 3098 to listen to the fairly harrowing message or download it here WC003 Car For Sale Mix17-09).
“We didn’t want to make an ad as such. We wanted to make an impact directly on boy racers by confronting them, in a real situation, with what could become very real consequences for driving cars such as these irresponsibly,” says Williams; “In a way it’s kind of a social experiment which we don’t think has ever been done before to address an issue like this, and the results are surprising.”
Out of the 300 messages left on the phone number’s voice message bank to date, Williams says around three quarters didn’t leave a message but just hung up after hearing the voice recording.
“We hope the underlying message got through to these listeners, many of whom would probably be involved in street racing. A certain kind of person buys a car like Jake’s. If it at least gets them thinking about what the effect of their driving could be, not only on their own lives, but also others in the community, we’ve made a difference.”
Amazingly, Williams says about 20 percent of the callers were actually still keen to buy the car after hearing the message and didn’t seem to be too concerned by it and about 10 percent offered their condolences but still wanted to buy the car. He says none of the callers got angry at being punked, but now that Ogilvy has come clean about it he thinks there could be a few to come.
“We had a few comments from callers who expressed concern about the tragedy but still wanted to buy the car in spite of the pain it had caused by being driven dangerously. Some didn’t seem concerned in the slightest, but just wanted to get their hands on a fast car. I think that shows that there’s still plenty of work to do to get the safer-driving message through.”
Williams says they didn’t get permission for the stunt, either from Subaru or Trade Me (“shoot first ask questions later,” he says). And even though Trade Me pulled the auction after about half an hour it still generated around 500 calls. The auction stayed up on the other sites, like Performance Car and AutoTrader, for over a week, however.
“Trade Me were pretty good about it. They said we should’ve just asked them, but if we asked them then they might have said no and we wouldn’t have been able to do it,” he says.
The new deputy mayor-elect of Auckland, Penny Hulse, who is an enthusiastic supporter of the campaign, says more needs to be done at a grass roots level to address the issue of speeding.
“When the Ogilvy creatives came to me with this idea I was immediately engaged. It was clever and we just knew it would get a safe driving message out there to those who need to hear it most,” she says. “It was certainly an unusual approach, but the high number of phone calls show it was a well targeted campaign. Hundreds of young men will have heard the distraught message, and hopefully that will carry through to them thinking about driving safer and slower.”
John Finch, director of the Right Track programme, a unique 42-hour course that teaches young people about the consequences of dangerous driving, says the ‘Car for sale’ campaign takes a much-needed fresh approach to addressing the issue of dangerous driving by youth offenders.
“We know that the TV ads don’t make an impact on the driving habits of youth. They just zone out. What we need to do is effect an attitudinal change that will transform behaviour from the inside out. It’s what we set out to do with Right Track, finding a new way to communicate the message … There are still a lot of people in the Waitakere area with a ‘wild west’ mentality, whose activities—for whatever reason—combine speeding, drinking and antisocial driving. More than anything, they need educating. The ad campaign will have made an impact on some of these young people already, which we hope will get them thinking about their actions on the road.”
Jacob
October 18, 2010
I like the enthusiasm but I’m sure all this campaign managed to do was to piss off a lot of people.
Where was the payoff for the audience? Not clever or funny.
Now that hard to reach audience is even harder to reach.
Average
October 19, 2010
Not very original. Why PR a method that has been used so many times before?
Interested
October 19, 2010
Average, when was it done before? I've never seen anything like it.
Jenene
October 19, 2010
Wow how I've missed Auckland…..
I thought it was a really original piece of thinking and executed with a great target in mind who are hard to reach. There is no downside to this campaign at all – i'd be willing to be that even if it made one person stop and think then a whole family and network of friends might avoid devastation.
Good on you guys for using a clear well throught strategy and realised the blurred lines between media nowdays with the overall vision of reaching a consumer result.
Jim
October 19, 2010
A campaign to polarise views. Callers might go away from the phone message feeling a bit confronted – cool. But if they (and their peers) later find out they've been manipulated by a smart-arse agency, it unravels (or even backfires). It feels like a clever campaign to me, right up to the point that the agency and client started to brag about it.
Boyd
October 19, 2010
I'm with you Jenene. Good strategy well executed. Shame more PR agencies aren't up to using digital channels in innovative ways.
PM
October 19, 2010
A brilliant way to target young men who are traditionally very difficult to reach with social messages like this. Let's face it – the idea has cost next to nothing to implement, it's reached hundreds of people and, at the very least, it has given the audience something to think about.
Rachel
October 19, 2010
Well I think this is a cool idea. Using the passion point of a car to draw them in is a really innovative channel.
Kulikov
October 19, 2010
Reasonable effort. Bit long. Bit fake. Probably original…just not great original. Kulikov gives 5.75/10
Ben Young
October 19, 2010
I'm with Jenene, loved the idea, great work guys. Keep it up!
Mike
October 19, 2010
I liked the fake answerphone idea via fake ad when Tui did it, when Tui was with Y&R Wellington. That was a long time ago, perhaps before those creatives were creatives. Poor press release, overly-focussed on the ad agency.
Average
October 20, 2010
You're either not plugged in enough to ideas or have only been around for 5 minutes if you haven't seen this approach before.
Will
October 21, 2010
A pretty cool idea, but these kinds of comments are just masturbation from la la land:
"…Some didn’t seem concerned in the slightest, but just wanted to get their hands on a fast car. I think that shows that there’s still plenty of work to do to get the safer-driving message through.”
And I'm sure you're the agency to do just that. LOL.
But seriously, you've heard of self-interest right? People might feel bad for a moment that a tragedy has occurred. But has it happened to them? No. So do they ultimately give a shit? Yawn. No.
It's not just about getting their hands on a fast car either — it's about getting their hands on that smoking hot car for just $8k. It's a fecking bargain that any investor or car enthusiast would jump at.
Now, if you had of made the price way more realistic, between $15,000 and $25,000, which is what this model is actually going for on TradeMe, then you would have had way less response, and thus a minuscule amount of publicity ;). You know I'm right. So a gag yes, but honest, no.
Nonetheless, if one family is saved this kind of tragedy then it's worth the exercise.
Spencer Willis
October 21, 2010
Unclear as to why there is any negativity towards this campaign. The price adjustment attracted more buyers or, more target audience, which is surely the purpose of any campaign. In terms of authenticity, seriously, anyone who has spent more than a hour and half in a group, would understand that this male target demo would 'respect' the campaign for its effort – how many campaigns get respect? and respecting the message and the way its delivered is vital in social marketing. C'mon guys, lets all jump on Jenene :-)..sorry, jump on Jenene's bandwagon here
Duncan Stuart
October 22, 2010
Reminds me of a similarly clever campaign posted by the Securities Commission in Queensland, designed to educate investors – and warn them from pouring money into ridiculous financial scams. So they posted ads with headlines like: "Make $$$ Invest in Amazing Jellyfish Opportunity."
The reaction from those idiots who contacted the phone number – potential jellyfish investors – was one of anger. A bloody good campaign I thought – it held up the mirror to their own stupidity.
That was about 20 years ago. The Ogilvy campaign sounds similarly well targeted. Good on them for going exactly where the audience is.
Jenene
October 28, 2010
Now now, no need to talk about jumping me in public people. I'm far too nice a girl for that. ;0)
This article on the herald this morning I think should clearly show the naysayers here why this advertising is a good way to deliver a message. I'd be willing to bet that the kid responsible here would happily do this type of campaign and put his real name to it – what a horrific experience and the poor parents (who deserve an award for their compassion).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10683589