Challenge
More than 40,000 people die on American roads each year and thousands more are seriously injured in motor vehicle crashes. Sadly, many of these deaths and injuries can be prevented. The Southeast region of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) needed a way to reach communities across its eight-state region – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee – to provide residents with information they could use to keep themselves and their families safe. However, each state, through its Governor’s Office of Highway Safety or other similar state office, distributes its own press releases on safe driving enforcement periods and NHTSA did not want to repeat the state’s efforts.
Solution
To disseminate NHTSA’s messages, c21 positioned doctors associated with NHTSA and the regional director as experts. Each month c21 would draft two articles “bylined” by the experts, one for rural areas and another for larger cities. Each article focused on different key messages from NHTSA: seat belt use, speeding and driving under the influence. Based on enforcement periods and major holidays, c21 distributed appropriate articles and pitched their inclusion in newspapers. For example, rural areas would receive an article about the importance of buckling up in your pickup truck, while more urban areas would receive an article on the consequences of driving under the influence.
Results
The bylined articles were featured in more than 35 media outlets throughout the region with a combined circulation of more than three million. Placements in The Tennessean, Montgomery Advertiser, Louisville Courier-Journal, The Augusta Chronicle, Miami Herald and Doctors Health Journal corresponded to an ad equivalency of more than $75,000. These articles helped spread NHTSA’s safe driving messages across the region and increased awareness of this important organization.
