Instead of showing the typical images of horrible car crashes and loss, Drug Free Kids Canada is taking a new approach to show kids and parents the danger of driving while high.
“The Call That Comes After” is an immersive transmedia experience created by FCB/SIX that combines online elements with a real-world mobile component that shockingly – and unexpectedly – drives home the dangers of high driving.
The pro bono campaign, which will run through June, intends to start a conversation between parents and teens about the dangers of driving high, using a device central to teens’ lives: their phone.
The journey begins at TheCallThatComesAfter.com, where parents create a custom video for their teen. They are asked to input their child’s name and mobile number, as well as the name or nickname they use for a parent on their mobile device (eg: “mom”).
A video is then sent to the intended recipient (their teenage child), showing a group of likeable teens that make the fateful decision to drive after smoking marijuana. The video culminates with a crash, followed by a series of frantic texts from a parent asking if they are okay.
The message then makes an unexpected jump to real-life as the same increasingly frantic messages begin appearing on the teen’s phone, abruptly transforming them from a passive viewer to an active participant in the narrative. The synchronicity of the user experience is achieved through the unprecedented integration of five technology platforms: IBM’s Marketing Cloud, Oracle Marketing Cloud, SMS, YouTube and an on-demand video rendering engine.
DIVERGE talked to Marc Paris, Executive Director, Drug Free Kids Canada and Vicki Waschkowski, VP, Managing Director FCB/SIX to find out more:
Why is this campaign significant?
Paris: It is significant in several ways:
High driving is now overcoming drinking & driving with youth as they do not see as risky as alcohol.
Drivers aged 16-24 account for over one in five of all fatally injured drivers
It is the first-time Drug Free Kids Canada has attempted to send a message directly to the kids via the video. In the past, we focused on connecting with the parents, who have the most influence over their kids by urging them to engage in a conversation about high driving
Waschkowski: For Drug Free Kids Canada, this campaign is significant because it is the first time they have focussed on digital and social media as the primary means of reaching out and engaging parents to act. It allowed them to crack a nut that they previously hadn’t been able to tackle – to give parents a way of talking to their teens about the dangers of driving high, and to directly engage their teens into that conversation. Moreso – with the upcoming legalization of marijuana in Canada, the need to talk to kids now about the dangers of driving high is more important than ever.
Was this a PSA/pro bono project?
Paris: Yes. Drug Free Kids Canada benefits from a unique relationship with over 60 media partners who provide on-going multi-platform support and ad agencies like FCB/SIX who provide pro bono services to create our campaigns
How does the customized video help the campaign?
Paris: This is the piece that connects with the kids. The feedback we are getting from kids is that the personalized video and subsequent technology blows them away. They are impressed by their parents who sent it to them and the video itself speaks to them. It is not preachy or moralizing and is not over the top dramatic. It describes a real-life scene where some kids end up making a bad decision. Comments like “It could be me”, “I wouldn’t have been able to answer back to my mom”, “It’s really cool” “Very realistic” have been coming back to us.
Waschkowski: In addition to what Marc outlined, the customized video adds a level of reality, and provides an added emotional punch to really put the teen into the experience. Seeing their own name and their mom/dad/aunt/uncle’s name on the screen of the phone, matching with what they see come through to their own phone, adds an element of surprise and relevance. But then finishing with a personalized plea embedded into the video that says “Jack, this is a message from Mom, please don’t get high and drive” adds the personalized impact that hits home. Kids would expect a CTA that says “Don’t get high and drive”, they wouldn’t expect a personal plea from their parent directly in the video, and we believe that alone will create a lasting impact on their behaviour when they are faced with a decision in future of getting into a car high or with another high driver.
What kind of feedback/response have you seen?
Paris: Parents have been impressed by the feedback from their kids (see comments above) also the Drug Abuse committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) have jumped at supporting this tool and are distributing the video to all police forces across the Country. As well, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) are supporting the project and are disseminating the tool throughout their entire 6.2 million membership.
Do you think this will make a difference?
Paris: This will both increase awareness of the issue among parents and teens and more importantly, open-up the dialogue between parents and teens about high driving. Just like previous drinking & driving campaigns, it will take more than one campaign to turn the tide, but it’s a great beginning.
Every conversation this sparks between a parent and their teen makes a difference. And every teenager who will now think twice about getting behind the wheel or into the car with a high driver, is a potential life saved.
Where did the idea come from?
Paris: FCB/SIX came with the insight that today’s parents communicate with their kids using the device central to teen’s lives…their phone. DFK was looking for a simple tool for parents to talk to their kids. Our research shows that although more parents say they have spoken to their kids about drugs more often, 40% of parents admit that the conversation only lasted a few minutes or less. This indicates in our opinion a reluctance on their part to have a real conversation. This tool provides an easy way to get a message across and open-up a real conversation.
Waschkowski: It’s not easy for parents to have a conversation with their kids about high driving. They don’t want the ‘lame eye-roll’ kind of conversation, they don’t want to get asked if they ever smoked weed, and they know they are not up to speed on the same lingo as their kids are. And parents themselves may not even know how serious of a problem driving high actually is, so they may not have thought to have this conversation. Parents are likely to tell their kids not to drink and drive, but “don’t get high and drive” is not as natural of a conversation. So we needed to encourage parents to open the door to a conversation in a way that is natural for them and their kids. We also had the insight that texting has become a normal way of having conversations between parents and teens, so we knew the phone as a central device would resonate.
By using the phone as the central way of experiencing the campaign, and bridging technology with the real world, it creates a natural way for both to engage. And we believe that a real conversation will then be sparked following the experience. Whether the conversation starts with the discussion of surprise about the digital integration elements of the campaign, or the actual content of the message, the conversation itself will happen and the message will hit home as a result.
Additional thoughts?
Paris: FCB/SIX pulled out all stops to provide DFK with a unique approach to the problem. We see this as a winner and look forward to the results once we launch a national multimedia campaign to support this project.
Waschkowski: Our original brief was to create something that could be shared in social media by parents. With the impact and success we immediately started to see, the campaign has now spread to development of a fully integrated cross-media campaign targeting parents in digital, social, print, radio, TV and OOH. All of these extended media elements will launch in Q2 of this year to extend the reach and impact of the experience.
Having the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police come on board to back the campaign is huge. We have heard from them that this campaign is in full alignment of their objectives for the coming year, and were proud to have received the following quote from Deputy Chief Mike Serr, Co-Chair of the Drug Advisory Committee with the CACP: “Recent studies have shown that youth do not believe drug impaired driving poses the same risks as driving under the influence of alcohol. As we move towards legalizing marijuana it is more important than ever to correct this misconception. We applaud Drug Free Kids Canada’s innovative campaign, “The Call That Comes After” which will generate dialogue and awareness on this important issue.”
The entire team at FCB/SIX, as well as our extended production partners that brought this to life, have been incredibly passionate about the work and inspired what we believe is a truly innovative campaign that can create real behaviour change. FCB/SIX has been privileged to partner with such a great organization as DFK Canada. At a time when the legalization of marijuana is such a hot topic for Canadians, and where we are facing increasingly alarming stats about the impact of high-driving, we hope to make a real impact.
FCB/SIX is a data-lead creative agency. And we believe this campaign is an excellent example of how the integration of data and technology, with brilliant creative, will drive an experience that creates change.
CREDITS:
Project: The Call That Comes After
Url: https://thecallthatcomesafter.com
Client: Drug Free Kids Canada
Executive Director: Marc Paris
Agency: FCB/SIX
Executive Creative Director: Ian Mackenzie
Associate Creative Director: Krystle Mullin
Associate Creative Director: Graham Tingle
VP, Group Account Director: Vicki Waschkowski
Account Supervisor: Shannon Harvey
Project Manager: Gillian Largey
Lead Developer: Dov Atlin
Campaign Manager: Andrew Yang
VP, Data & Technology: Jacob Ciesielski
President: Andrea Cook
Agency Producer: Kelly Cavanaugh
Media Planning: UM
Director Connection Planning: Cynthia Steele
Production Company: Circle Productions
Executive Producer: Andria Minott
Director / Cinematographer: Jesse Blight
Line Producer: Robbie McNamara
Editorial: School Editing
Editor: Lauren Horn
Exec. Producer: Sarah Brooks
Post Production: Red Lab
Executive Producer: Laurie Kerr-Jones
Producer: Pallavi Joshi
Visual Effects Artist: Andy Hunter
Colourist: Jason Zukowski
Music & Sound Design: Vapor RMW
Producer: Ted Rosnick
Casting: Shasta Lutz, Jigsaw Casting
