Dumb Ways to Die
Nov 17th, 2012 by Siew Ying
This is Melbourne’s Public Service Announcement and it has gone viral on the internet with its catchy music, interesting lyrics and cute animations. This video targets younger audiences as a reminder to be cautious when they are at the train platform. It now has more than 8million views on Youtube though it was only released in less than a week. I say this would be the mini Gangnam wave for the online community, especially among the younger audiences.
Few Reasons to the Success of this Campaign:
1. Setting the mood of the campaign appropriately in a creative sense: I think this is a tactful video that has captured audiences attention successfully on this topic. It is very smart of the creator to turn audiences’ avoidance for accidents to a happy and creative clip that they would share it to their friends and family. A conventional PSA on accidents would probably picture bloody unbearable scenes that delivers high level of stress to audiences. Surreal ads that reminds audiences directly about their safety would not be as effective as this one because audiences will shift their attention away from the screen. However, this video is set in a fun and happy mood with its cute animations that engages audiences’ attention to watch the beginning of the video to the end.
2. Elements of the Video: There’s a surprise element at the end of the song. People would not know what it is all about until the part when it says “Be safe around trains. A message from Metro.” at the end of the video. The lyrics are fun and easy to understand. The tune of the song is lively and happy. Although it talks about a sensitive topic (death), the song delivers joy to people. Audiences who view the video are thrilled and gladly share it to their friends and family.
3. Uses of other Social Media Channels: They created a Tumblr page for this campaign too. Audiences can download the cute animations in gif. format from Tumblr. This allows people to reblog the content from Tumblr and it increases audiences’ engagement for the campaign.
This campaign fits Groundswell POST method perfectly too.
People – The element of the video is fun and cute that directly targets younger audiences
Objective – To remind people to stay safe at the train platform. It is an effort to curb train related deaths.
Strategy – Create something that people will share it to their friends and family in order to cover larger amount of audiences.
Technology – A video that is fun to watch that will encourage people to share around.