LTNZ "Bloody Legends "

Mobile technology giving people the power to save their lives

For many young males in provincial areas of New Zealand, drink-driving is a common occurrence. They know drink-driving is wrong but once they've had a 'few' they can become irrational and feel bullet-proof, falsely giving them the confidence to drive.

Land Transport New Zealand is the government department responsible for reducing the road toll.

A highly emotional and realistic TV campaign had brought the message home, to a point. But LTNZ and their agency, Clemenger BBDO, realised that this 'hard-core' of drink drivers now needed a serious wake-up call.

The challenge now was to find a way of delivering this powerful and shocking message in a way that would grab the attention of this hard-to-reach group. At a relevant time. And ultimately make them re-think their behaviour. In other words, it had to stop drink-drivers dead in their tracks. To do this an idea called 'Bloody Legends' was created. It literally put the power to save lives in the hands of the friends of drink-drivers. And to do this it used mobile technology.

Run The Red developed and managed the mobile component that allowed those friends to send an anonymous IVR message to the potential drink-driver at the 'moment of truth' - when they were about to get behind the wheel. Instructions were put on pub beer coasters and posters. In the pub, the drink-driver's friend simply texted the drink-driver's mobile number and a keyword to a 'shortcode' number.

Once the keyword was recognised and the mobile number confirmed an alert was sent to an IVR call center, to send out the IVR that related to the keyword to the mobile number.

Within seconds the drink-driver would receive a text message from a fictitious yet plausible character - a Plastic Surgeon, a Nurse, a Hotline Worker or a Home Help. The text message received by the potential drink-driver had a darkly humorous tone. It was carefully written to hit the right nerve. At the same time a message was sent to the friend congratulating them on taking the step to save a life, and being a 'Bloody Legend'.

"Thanks for being a Bloody Legend and doing something to stop a drink driver. 027XXX XXXX will receive a call soon."

Finally, the potential drink-driver received an IVR message that told them that a concerned friend had instigated the message.

The system had to be ‘fail-safe’ - lives literally depended on it.

Our challenge was to develop a system that would ensure that the message got through every time. There could be no room for error, as lives literally depended on it. The system had to be fully automated. And it had to be easy for those concerned friends to get the message across. We also put in some 'safety measures' - users were restricted to receiving a maximum of 5 messages per day, and a blacklist was created to prevent users from receiving multiple IVR messages, if requested.

Over the four months of the Bloody Legends campaign, over 13,000 IVR calls were made to potential drink drivers. Run The Red provided detailed daily reports to Clemenger and LTNZ throughout the campaign.

Not only did 'Bloody Legends' save lives over the duration of the campaign, it has helped bring about a long-term change in attitude within this key target audience.

Clemenger BBDO's idea was justifiably honoured at International Creative Awards winning Gold at the Cannes Lions for Direct as well as 5 gold CAANZ awards, including Best in Show.

Bloody Legends also proves that, using the power of mobile technology, it's possible to deliver an important message at a specific time and place. It can really make a difference. We're proud that, in the case of 'Bloody Legends', it means saving lives.