In France, one group of road users is particularly vulnerable: bikers. This tribe-like gang make up just 2% of road users, yet account for a depressing 20% of all deaths on the road. Yet despite what we may think, it’s not external factors that cause the most motorcyclists’ deaths on France’s road – it’s bikers’ own sense of invincibility when faced with a wide open road all to themselves – they whack open the throttle, often with fatal consequences. France’s national road safety council needed to make its bikers aware of the shocking statistics, but to do that it would have to open lines of communication with a community known for their extreme insularity. More: it would need to hand the communications keys to influential bikers, so they themselves would spread the word in an ‘inside-out’ rather than top-down campaign.

Tapping into the insight around invincibility, we came up with the strapline, ‘The biggest danger is thinking that there is no danger’, embedding it in bikers’ minds across France by leveraging traditional media relations, social media influencer outreach and experiential events. The year following the campaign, France saw the lowest number of motorcyclist deaths on its roads for at least 15 years, a massive 14.5% decline over the previous year. And 110 less lives lost.

A holistic, 360° campaign leveraging classic PR, social media, influencer outreach and experiential to put the ‘keys for communication’ in the hands of bikers.

Elements:

- a 35” spot, to tell the story: bikers are often their own worst enemy, with fatal consequences.

- Experiential activities staged at established biker meets

- online PR to engage with biker influencers

- Traditional media relations, targeting specialist biker media as well as mainstream outlets

- Creation of a dedicated YouTube channel: featuring the spot itself, as well as additional bonuses, including interviews with the director and stuntmen from the spot.

In 2012, France saw the lowest number of motorcyclist deaths on its roads for at least 15 years , a massive 14.5% decline over the previous year.

• A TNS study showed that a third of Frances’ motorcyclists remember the campaign, even weeks later. Of these, 79% said the campaign would make them more vigilant on their bikes. Close to two thirds said they had talked about the campaign with others.

• Influential bloggers spread the word leading to hundreds of comments and thousands of Likes from the exclusive biker community

• 200 million media impressions

• Over 95% of the coverage exclusively dedicated to the campaign, quoting the strapline in full

• 74 minutes of prime-time TV and radio coverage generated

• 1.3 million views on YouTube.

• 250,000 unique visits to the official website during the 3-week campaign