Online Circle Digital goes behind the scenes with Angus Stevens, Creative Director at SCA, in a exclusive interview about TAC Victoria Campaign - Roadtrip Forever.

1. &
www.roadtripforever.com.au
Q ASouthern Cross Austereo &
Online Circle Digital
on the social media campaign
“Roadtrip Forever”

2. Online Circle Digital
goes behind the scenes with Angus
Stevens, Creative Director Vision Sales
at SCA, in an exclusive interview about
Roadtrip Forever.
READ HOW IT WENT DOWN

3. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
TAC were looking for new and innovative ways to reach young
adults. We saw a huge opportunity to reach this core group by
integrating their personal data into the narrative of the film, to
maximise the impact of the key message.
1. Why did you decide to use social media for this campaign?
We wanted to create a genuine conversation where our target
demo directly bought into the idea, related to the story and
unprompted, chose to share it with their friends.

4. Online Circle:
Angus Stevens:
It’s had a positive response. The social media strategy of
discovery, word of mouth referral and unpaid celeb Twitter
support, was combined to drive traffic to the site.
This approach has resulted in over 60% of users arriving via
referrals, the site duration averaging over four minutes per user
and the conversations on Twitter and Facebook driven by the
target demo reflecting the road safety message that is the core
objective of the campaign.
2. How has it performed so far?
This social media campaign from
@SCrossAustereo is innovative and
brilliant. Watch. roadtripforever.com
Mia Freedman
@MiaFreedman

5. Online Circle:
Angus Stevens:
The inspiration behind the campaign was twofold. Firstly the pain
of reading RIP messages left on the Facebook wall of friends
who’d passed away. How do you capture that moment in a
manner that would be genuine and relatable for our audience…
without feeling heavy handed or alienating your audience?
Secondly borne out of TAC’s research which highlighted that
young adults would rather die than hurt or kill their best friend.
Using these insights we created a realistic scenario that brought
to life their worst fears.
3. What was your inspiration behind this campaign?

6. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
It’s unique to TAC as it’s not a traditional TVC that is presented
to the audience through traditional media. Instead it’s a
conversation with the audience – where the user is an active
participant in the creation of the content that they view. In turn
they become an advocate of the message through the ease with
which they can share the message with their own social media
community.
4. How do you think this differs from all other TAC campaigns?

7. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
5. What were your objectives for this campaign?
The core objective of this campaign is to change the driving
behaviour of Victorians aged 18-24. Distraction is an important
road safety issue that needed to be addressed for young women,
particularly the use of mobile phones whilst driving. For men it’s
more about speeding.
The two webfilms produced for Roadtrip Forever and the road
safety message embedded within these clips incorporates
Facebook data to personalize and heighten this message, thereby
creating a lasting impression on the user and hopefully alter
their driving behaviour.

8. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
From the initial concept being pitched through to going live on
the site this was 14 months in the making.
6. How long did this campaign take to execute?

9. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
Based on the insight that the TAC were looking for new ways to
reach young adults, Roadtrip Forever was created.
7. What was the original brief from TAC?

10. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
As of today (22 March), seven people aged between 18-25
years have died on Victorian roads this year.
In terms of comparative road fatality statistics between the
Australian states, this website has a database to generate stats,
but it only has year-on-year stats, not year-to-date.
8. What is the current death toll for young drivers?
In which state is the death toll for young drivers highest?

11. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
At a minimum it will be available for the remainder of 2013.
9. Is Roadtrip Forever a permanent social media application?
If not, how long will it be available for?

12. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
Since launch we’ve had an incredible response for Roadtrip
Forever as evidenced by the social traction and the comments
we’ve seen. The quality of the experience for each individual
user is also uniquely high with an average duration of over four
minutes per user. With over 30,000 views in the initial word-of-
mouth phase we couldn’t be happier with the results thus far.
10. How many people have used it so far?

13. Online Circle:
STOP
ONLYAngus Stevens:
Give yourself time. Time to plan, time to nail production, time
to test, and time to observe the users’ response so you can
ensure that their conversations and reactions are visible to as
many people as possible.
11. What is the greatest tip you can impart to social media
managers based on your learnings from this project?

15. View the full campaign at:
www.roadtripforever.com.au