Behavior Change Campaigns to Reduce Fatalities and Serious Injuries on Roadways

• Reviewing crash data to develop a base level understanding of the “who” and “where” of deadly crashes
• Conducting focus groups with young male drivers to discover the “why" — understanding their experiences, challenges, and likes and dislikes
• Creating tailored, behavior change messaging by using focus group findings to persuade young male drivers to make safe driving habits

The Florida Department of Transportation is focused on making safe driving the norm, encouraging better choices behind the wheel to reduce deadly and serious injury crashes. 

Identified by FDOT in its Strategic Highway Safety Plan, Target Zero is a statewide initiative to reduce the number of transportation-related serious injuries and deaths across the state. Target Zero incorporates all five elements of the Safe System Approach, working together to align resources and establish actions to improve safety on Florida’s transportation system.

HDR’s Strategic Communications team led efforts to raise statewide awareness of the Target Zero effort. Under the tagline of “Let’s Get Everyone Home, safely” our team developed brand guidelines and key messaging, created social media assets and content for the website and updated the messaging on all existing educational safety campaigns, all while coordinating with highway safety and statewide law enforcement partners to establish cohesion among agencies.

Transforming Safety by Changing Behavior

This Target Zero campaign goes a step further than most existing safety programs and campaigns. Beyond education about laws, the initiative specifically engages drivers most likely to be involved in fatal and serious crashes, seeking to understand the life challenges that affect their behavior behind the wheel.

Over half of the fatalities and serious injuries on Florida’s roads involve a young male driver. To better understand these drivers and how to reach them, the Target Zero team conducted in-depth focus groups and interviews to learn about their experiences, life challenges, values, priorities, dislikes, influences and where they consumed content.

As part of a multidisciplinary team — comprised of engineers, data analysts and behavior scientists — our strategic communications professionals developed three new pilot campaigns. Each addressed a specific challenge identified in the crash data and confirmed in the focus groups.

• Speeding and Time Management: Call to action: “Early. On time. A little late. Just get there safely.”
• Distracted and Multitasking: Call to action: “Drive time is you time. Ride with DO NOT DISTURB.”
• Aggressive and Stress Management: Call to action: “Keep your distance. Embrace the space between you and other drivers.”

To promote concentration while behind the wheel and encourage safer driving habits, the team curated calming music playlists and drafted “do not disturb” messages for these young drivers to use. Selfie frames and other Target Zero branded engagement activities were crafted for use at more than 50 statewide community events to further educate people on the importance of safe driving behavior.

Each of the three pilot campaigns was assigned to an FDOT geographical region [in Florida] and promoted through a comprehensive 30-day marketing blitz. The campaigns used a mix of paid, earned, shared and owned media, targeting platforms where the research found that young men consume content. These included social media sites, audio and video streaming services and major sporting events. Additional outreach methods included radio ads, press events, TV coverage, gas pump videos, the FDOT website, highway message boards and displays at rest areas. Together, the three campaigns received more than 167 million impressions, garnering 110,000 webpage visits. Communications metrics, including impressions (views), engagement, sentiment and recall are being used to measure early phases of the campaign. As with many other transportation safety initiatives, other types of data and data trends will take a little longer to gather and measure for impact.

Driving Forward a Multiphase Mission

Target Zero is a multiphase initiative. Phase 1 of the program involved the creation of brand guidelines and statewide messaging. Phase 2 included the conception of the three behavior-based campaigns, which were piloted in specific regions. In Phase 3, each of the behavior campaigns will be retooled to reach a broader audience throughout Florida, as well as the creation of campaigns tailored for the young, male Hispanic population.