Accidents and deaths among young people on Melbourne’s Metro train system had been on the rise for years. Our brief was to get the idea of train safety on the agenda for under 25-year-olds, and reduce the amount of accidents on the system.

The problem is young people don’t listen to public safety messages.

So, instead of following the standard PSA format, we did the complete opposite: we embedded our message inside infectiously likeable and sharable content.

Dumb Ways to Die was an integrated campaign that used entertainment to reposition being unsafe around trains as the dumbest way to die. We didn’t preach, or lecture.

Every element of the campaign was designed to raise awareness of train safety and make it part of the conversation. But also to get people to pledge to be safe around trains, because we wanted to get people to actively invest in changing their behavior.

The video had over 20 million YouTube views within a week, and is now approaching 50 million. It is the 3rd most shared ad in history.

The song charted on iTunes in 28 countries, made the top 10 in several, and is still getting airplay on radio stations worldwide.

Schools started using the video as a teaching tool, and due to demand we published a 48 page book for school use.

There are over 200 cover versions of the song and video online.

Over 750 global news websites covered the campaign, including every Australian network.

Nearly 1 million people have pledged to be safe around trains on our website.

And for the three months post-launch (the most recent data), Metro has experienced a 21% reduction in accidents and deaths compared to the same time last year. Metro’s goal was a 10% reduction.

Rail safety is now part of the conversation.

The song, Dumb Ways to Die, was released onto iTunes and Soundcloud. On the same day, the music video was uploaded onto YouTube. The video description carried links to: our campaign website, our tumblr page with 21 animated gifs, iTunes where the song was available for purchase, and soundcloud for free downloads.

12 days after the main video launched, we released a karaoke version onto YouTube to encourage the spread of covers and parodies. 3 days after launch, paid media began: Transit advertising and Press ran. Radio advertising was purchased to play the song, although stations were already playing it for free.

By this time, the karaoke version of the song was playing on train platforms, and interactive posters were encouraging Metro users to spread the message via Instagram. Eight weeks after launch, a 48 page book was released for use in schools. And finally, a smartphone game was released.