The objective was to bring down social acceptation of speeding in Belgium, by increasing awareness about consequences and actively engaging in public debate. Belgian men between the age of 25 and 40 were the primary target group; the secondary target group was all vehicle drivers.

Our insight was that peers and loved ones have much more impact on target audiences than traffic security organizations. We wanted to confront speeding offenders with the emotional consequences and their close ones with the responsibility of acting before it is too late.

“Went too fast. Gone too soon.” reflects the mindset of these close relatives of deceased speeding offenders.

The visualization of speeding offenders attending their own funeral, was realized by a short candid camera film production. It provided a recognizable emotional setting for any speeding offender to be warned by the people who love them, before it is too late.

To reach a broad audience, with limited budget, we decided to use PR and Online as main media channels. PR was crucial to start and wage the public debate. Press conference, press release and close follow-up initially boosted the online film.

As of day 1, the public debate was on: media featured special news items and reports, editorials, opinions, interviews and surveys for days. The online campaign film immediately went viral: 1.6 million views in 48 hours. The campaign carried on to go beyond objectives being is the most successful client campaign in terms of visibility, debate and appreciation.

A press conference with the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, the Secretary of State for Traffic Security, the Head of the Federal Police and Belgian Institute for Road Safety was organized to explain the campaign and show a teaser of the online film. A press release sent to all media contained the link to the online film.

In parallel, the film was launched through online channels. The Belgian Institute for Road Safety’s campaign website and social media, primarily the YouTube channel, initially carried the film. Our PR team contacted most relevant and influential journalists and bloggers.

Of course, the strength of the story and quality of the production were key success factors.

Initially a small online advertising budget was foreseen but on day 2 of the launch, we decided not to spend any of it as the campaign take-up was self-supportive and beyond target.

With €0 media spending we earned €8.8 million Belgian media value in just 48 hours, while omnipresent press coverage reached 81% of the target audience (5.3 million vehicle drivers in Belgium).

In 2 days we achieved 1.6 million views on the Youtube channel (10 times the objective of 150.000) with a 93% liking rate (high for this type of campaign).

Belgians massively watched, shared and tagged friends. The press consider it “the most talked about, confronting campaign ever” (Het Nieuwsblad, 08/04/2014). A speeding accident victim on the evening news: “We should see more of these campaigns because it really captured the consequences of speeding.”

Today we estimate at least 10 million views on multiple international online media. The campaign went viral in 227 countries, with people generating translations other than the original Dutch/French (Belgium). AdvertisingAge mentioned it as “#8 most viral ad worldwide”.