Responsinble Young Drivers is an organisation with two goals: spreading road safety awareness among young people and making sure nobody drives under influence.

In Belgium deadly road accidents involving young people mostly happen on the way home from a concert or a party. After a night of heavy dancing and drinking. Responsible Young Drivers wanted to draw attention to this fact, but lacked the funds to reach a large audience through traditional media and means.

Sadly, young road victims not only lose their life, but also their future. As they will never get the chance to see their favorite bands or dj’s ever again.

We used the past of a road victim, to save the future of young drivers. More specifically, Maarten’s past. Maarten was run over by a drunk driver on his way back from a party when he was only 22. At the time he was also a huge fan of Bloc Party. A band he now would never get to see. So when Bloc Party came to Belgium, we sold his concert ticket on Ticketswap. For an unusual and strikingly low price. 22 euro. Maarten’s age when he died. Along with a short and clear message to the many interested buyers, asking them in Maarten’s name to never drink and drive.

We needed to reach as many youngsters as possible without a real production or media budget. That’s why we chose to sell Maarten’s Memorial Ticket where we knew youngsters would see it: Ticketswap. Ticketswap is a very popular website that young people use to find lucrative deals or last minute tickets for sold out concerts. The platform also allows its users to link their Facebook and Twitter profiles, so they can sell their tickets faster through social media. We used this feature to spread Maarten’s story on a much bigger scale than the platform itself.

We started by uploading Maarten’s Memorial Ticket on Ticketswap. To draw more attention to the ticket, we shared the link on the Responsible Young Drivers’ Facebook and Twitter page along with Maarten’s story. Local and national press was contacted beforehand. From there, things took off. Without any form of paid promotion, the story of Maarten’s ticket was shared by friends, family, influencers and radio hosts.

Maarten’s ticket was sold within a couple of hours. But his story was shared all week long. Not only by his family and friends, but also by Belgium’s biggest radio stations and all major newspapers and music blogs. Reaching over 6 million people in total. That’s more than half of Belgium’s population. But more importantly, our message came across.