New campaign combines traditional storytelling with social media technology. 

Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has developed and produced Roadtrip Forever for the Victorian Transport Accident Commission (TAC), targeting young people with road safety messages to reduce the disproportionate number of youth killed or injured in car accidents.

Combining traditional storytelling, with social media technology, the result is an immersive online video experience that integrates users and their friends’ Facebook content.

When you log in with facebook and ‘take the trip,’ the online road trip video asks you to nominate a friend to go with you, then pulls your photos and other information from facebook and puts them into the three and a half minute road trip video.

SCA Creative Director Angus Stevens, in a behind the scenes video about the campaign, said the TAC took on board that the target audience is very online and social media driven, so the campaign integrates those elements. “The facebook integration adds to the story and personalises it,” he says.

At radioinfo we opened up our facebook to the online experience and ‘took the trip.’ It certainly packs a punch.

The inclusion of your friends into the story alongside the personal facebook photos heightens the impact of the road safety message. When you see your own facebook message to your friend at the end of the video it drives the road safety message home.

The online video promises it doesn’t store your personal data and your friend never knows they were part of the presentation.

The online campaign is currently supported by tv ads, with radio ads scheduled to brgin in a couple of weeks time.

Two completely different web films were produced, a male and a female version, based on the TAC’s detailed research about the target demographic and each gender’s unique driving behaviours.  This research also showed within the 18-25 demographic a preference for online as the most effective platform for brand communication.  This insight formed the basis of the content creation and distribution strategy thereby making Roadtrip Forever available to them on their turf via online and on their terms via social media sharing. 

It is new territory for the TAC, but one they felt compelled to explore.

The social media strategy of discovery, word of mouth referral and un-paid celeb twitter support, was combined to drive traffic to the site. This approach has resulted in over 60% of users arriving via referrals with the site duration averaging over four minutes per user.

Already, the social media shares demonstrate the impact of the content on the target audience and their willingness to push this road safety message to their peers; reflected in tweets such as “This is a must see…. Take a couple minutes, kick back and take the trip.”

SCA’s Melbourne General Manager Cathy Thomas says: “Our strength as Australia’s most innovative media entertainment solutions provider continues to evolve – and we’re proud of our ability to continually harness new and emerging technologies to ensure our clients have the best possible platform to speak to their audience. 

“Roadtrip Forever is a fantastic example of SCA’s ability to go beyond traditional platforms and harness social media, which we know is the perfect way to reach teenagers and young adults in 2013.  This campaign is truly a testament to the skills and creativity of our hard working team.”

It is difficult to understand the significance of the message, or the innovative way facebook content is used, without experiencing the onlien preentation, so click here while you are logged into facebook to see the whole social media side of the campaign.

One of the finished trailers, which aims to drive the audience to take the online trip, is below.