Success Behind "Dumb Ways to Die" Campaign
- Helen Luu
- May 11, 2020
- 2 min read
In 2012, Metro created an effective campaign in a bid to reduce bad behaviour that causes injury. According to Metro Trains, general manager of corporate relations and business development saw a 20% decrease in "dumb behaviours" on train platforms in Melbourne just after 2 months of the campaign launch. The campaign used a combination of digital marketing and billboards.
Why was it so effective?
Use of creativity
The campaign uses animation figures to reenact "dumb ways to die" that was used in a more light and positive approach. Other safety announcements such as drink driving campaigns are typically more serious and appeal to emotions such as guilt or shock. However, "dumb ways to die" took the opposite approach and successfully communicated their message to their viewers through their friendly and humorous campaign.
The use of their music was in line with their visual content creating a cute theme that was catchy and funny for viewers. This has helped the company create buzz on social media, typically Youtube, where many viewers were sharing to friends and family. It is no doubt that the ad differentiated from traditional safety videos.
Target audience
With the use of digital marketing, Youtube videos, Facebook posts and Tumblr pages and smartphone apps successfully allowed Metro to convey their message towards a younger and larger audience through a more engaging approach as opposed to how traditional media.
Furthermore, the appealing song that was catchy and cute became available on Itunes reaching the top 10 charts of Itunes within days of its launch and was viewed 2.5 million times within two days. The campaign naturally targets a larger audience with injuries being a worldwide problem at train stations.
"Dumb ways to die" was named the Best of the decade at the Asia-Pacific Tambuli Awards. What seemed to initially be a light-hearted message, the campaign managed to inspire other safety campaigns and reached out to a larger audience than anticipated.
What are your thoughts on the campaign and do you think there are other reasons why it was so successful?
@Taylah Faulkner Hey Taylah, thanks for commenting! The campaign was one of the most creative ones yet in terms of trying to deliver a serious message. It was enjoyable for both adults and kids, which sometimes can be hard to target both at once.
@Vanessa Kadamani Hey Vanessa! I totally agree they did an amazing job and results were shown through their numbers of views and accomplishment in reducing incidents are train stations. I think that many marketers learnt from their campaigns as to how to properly engage with the audience! It's great to see successful campaigns like these because it helps marketers like us to learn from them.
Hey Helen, I absolutely loved this campaign, especially the song, it's so catchy, you can't forget it. Although they're trying to make a point about serious issues, the use of cartoons to spread the message made it light-hearted and funny, although it's a serious thing. They definitely did an amazing job with their campaign, and the results show that they did!
This was such a creative campaign, I remember the catchy song they played on the ads! So creative in the way that they made a joke out of a serious topic, I think this really helped them connect with the target audience as we would watch it and think something like - as if anyone would ever do that anyway! But this actually does happen so was a humorous way to bring it to our attention
@tinaazheng Tell me about it! The song is so catchy and is something that we will always be stuck in our heads. It's great that they took an approach that appeals to both younger and older generation
Hi Helen! Thank you for sharing this campaign! It really is a humorous approach to educate people the little things in our daily life that can cause us to die. I think the reason why it was so successful is that it takes an animated approach and a tune that is easily memorizable and people can sing along too. Now I cannot get the tune out of my head!!