850,000 Moving Billboards a Week / AUSTRALIAN ROAD SAFETY FOUNDATION "Life-Saving Stickers"

The problem

In Queensland, even in residential neighborhoods, one in three drivers was exceeding the 50 km/h speed limit. The same old road safety ads weren't reaching anyone anymore. What was needed was a low-budget way to shake people out of their complacency.

The insight

The team noticed something nobody had ever thought of as advertising space: the more than 850,000 trash bins that go out on the street every week. On trash day, drivers' feet are already on the gas pedal. The idea was to catch their eye with a child's face at exactly that moment.

The idea

They created "Life-Saving Stickers" featuring children of different ages and heights playing or walking to school. The stickers were released on social media at the start of the new school term right after Easter, and shared with local parent groups and road safety organizations. People could order not just one sticker for their own bin, but enough for a whole street or an entire workplace.

What happened

The first print run sold out in three days. The video was shared more than 5,000 times, and the foundation's followers grew by about 1,200. The Mayor of Brisbane and national news outlets picked up the story, and the foundation's CEO gave more than 50 interviews in three days. Over Easter, the period with the highest number of road deaths, Queensland recorded zero road deaths for the first time in 20 years.

Afterthought

If you don't have an advertising budget, use something the city already has. They turned trash bins—a kind of media that's guaranteed to hit the streets every single week—into a message from a neighbor. The moment it stopped being a government appeal and became a request from the house next door, it became so much more powerful.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Gold 2016

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