With technology and online platforms being at an all time high, many companies look towards finding fresh and innovative ways to capture our attention as an audience – especially when it’s regarding something as important as our safety! Possibly one of the most iconic safety awareness videos belongs to TFL’s ‘Moonwalking Bear’. With these type of videos being able to reach the masses, this particular safety awareness video has now achieved over 21 million hits on Youtube alone. The Moonwalking Bear (sometimes known as The Awareness Test), is used to make drivers become more vigilant when checking for bikes – it certainly showed us we can miss obvious things if we our attention is diverted elsewhere!

Why an Online Safety Video?
With the web allowing consumers to access media from all over the world, an online safety film makes it easy to share and promote these short videos – enabling thousands, if not millions, of online hits. Video’s can often be easier to absorb and can generally draw us in quicker than writing, explaining perhaps why this is such a popular choice when trying to influence an audience’s actions. The Guardian summarizes this idea well – “With online video quickly becoming a key means for people to satisfy their information and entertainment needs, small businesses that fail to include it in their internet marketing strategies will do so at their peril”.

“If a picture paints a 1000 words, then 1 minute worth of video is worth 1.8 million”
The Gaurdian
It seems that video is more engaging for us and easier for us to access, and along with YouTube’s weekly audience of “more than 20 million people in the UK alone”, it’s clear to see that these safety videos are having an effect on our lives. They are making us think. They are making us see. They are making us aware.

Embrace Life – Always wear your seatbelt

Embrace Life is a powerful example of how videos are use to convey safety messages through the use of film – with this example illustrating the importance of seatbelts. It uses a situation many can relate to – family – and creates a film that is both emotive and informative to the us. This is sure to get people to think twice before driving without a seatbelt.

“You should wear a seatbelt because you want to live—not because you don’t want to die”
Tim NuddThomson Airways Safety Video

Since the airing their new safety video in 2009, Thomson announced that “three times more people are watching it”. Thomson created a clever way to entice flyers into watching their safety video – in order to prevent their customers from ignoring their safety messages. Also, in contrast from the old mundane plane safety videos, Thomson’s new film not only engaged adults, but also engaged children with a “ 91% increase in the number of children under 12” who watched the entirety of the video (Thomson).

The Impossible Texting and Driving Test

Being watched over 4 million times on Youtube, The Impossible Texting and Driving Test by RYD (Responsible Young Drivers) became a hit with its driving and texting safety video. Rather than trying to convey to young people not to drive and text, it forced them (in a set up environment) to text and drive – with the theory if you ban something, young people will want to do it even more. Its message was simple “ to teach young drivers about the dangers of sending text messages whilst driving” (BBC).

Whodunnit?

“It’s easy to miss something you are not looking for. On a busy road this could be fatal. Look out for cyclists” (Telegraph). Whodunnit, is a follow on from a series of road awareness campaigns from TFL showing how easily you can miss something. Many people perhaps saw one or two changes in scenery, but no one imagined that their were in fact 21 errors – similar to the moonwalking bear, it made us feel stupid and stunned by our mistakes – which hopefully will make us more aware of our surroundings in the future.

Dumb Ways To Die

With over 110 million hits, this animated train safety video for Melbourne Metro Trains is definitely one of the more popular awareness short films. It uses dark humour and a catchy song (Dumb ways to Die, Dumb ways to Die, Dumb ways to Die) in order to urge people to behave more carefully around trains. The video has been so insanely popular that Melbourne Metro even followed it up with an animated app for both iPhones and Android phones and a second video: Dumb ways to Die – Let the training begin (get it? TRAINing).

Whilst on the topic of safety videos, a good friend of ours, Martin Sterling, directed a short on texting and driving that was released earlier this week. Anatomy of a Split Second is shot and edited together excellently and is a “powerful reminder to keep your eyes on the road” (adland). We LoveLove love it! (Go Martin!)

Are safety awareness videos effective?
YES. Our brains favour visual material, so we respond so much better to video and animation – especially if they are as captivating as the ones above. We can also receive the information much quicker than just words alone, saving both time and energy. According to THINK! after 50 years of campaigning drink driving deaths have significantly fallen – proving that these campaigns do make a difference! Hats off to the filmmakers and animators which work hard to make safety awareness interesting and engaging – saving lives and loved ones.

 

Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/jan/14/video-content-marketing-media-online
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120516-the-impossible-driving-test
http://www.faithtap.com/3851/driving-test-allows-texting-to-prove-its-danger-to-drivers/
http://www.fastcocreate.com/3027603/coke-puts-cinema-goers-onscreen-to-remind-them-to-be-quiet-during-the-movie
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1212266/Thomson-Airways-safety-video-children-cabin-crew-shows-buckling-plane-simple.html
http://osocio.org/message/campaign-of-the-year-2010-embrace-life-always-wear-your-seatbelt/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/3478961/Whodunnit-awareness-test-How-many-changes-can-you-spot.html
http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/press-centre/2009/thomsons-visionary-approach-to-in-flight-safety-is-childs-play.html
http://think.direct.gov.uk/drink-driving.html
http://adland.tv/commercials/road-safety-authority-anatomy-split-second-2015-45-ireland

 

Please Note: We did not make any of the viral campaigns or videos in this blog post, we just LoveLove love them!