At the centre of the campaign was a fairly simple idea: tell the stories of those who had been “lost in the rain” to drive awareness and help save lives.

The medium was road signs created using a stencil and a special hydrophobic liquid (water repellant) that when sprayed on the road created messages that were invisible when dry but would appear when the roads got wet.

Installed at several strategic road locations around Mumbai and Delhi at the start of the monsoon season, the road signs revealed themselves to the public when it rained.

The message was not a typical road safety message sponsored by Chevrolet, it was the stories of victims and their families told in a new way, in environments where the messages took on a heightened relevancy and immediacy for both pedestrians and those who saw the content online.

The hydrophobic paint was key. It had to be tested on multiple road conditions and be able to withstand pedestrian traffic and heavy rainfall in the monsoon.

Working with Muskaan (A local road safety foundation) we interviewed victims’ family members for their stories. With the support of local traffic authorities, these were then installed at high accident zones in Mumbai and Delhi as road safety signs for the monsoon.

A standard highway font was used for maximum legibility.

On social media, the video got 14.7 million views while the safety website drove 3.7 million engagements. On Facebook, Chevrolet India received a 92% positive sentiment score for the campaign.

Most importantly, the innovative wet signs captured the media’s attention with CNN, CNBC, TV18, IBN and other networks and publications covering the campaign and raising the subject of road safety into a national conversation with a reach of over 233 million, almost one-fifth of a nation of 1.3 billion people.