The National Road Safety Campaign We Think We Want
Nicola Wass, CEO, was recently asked whether she thought there should be a national road safety campaign. Her first instinct was to ask - what do we actually mean by that?
The UK is not starting from nothing. THINK! has been part of the road safety landscape for many years, and there is a long history of government-backed road safety communications in this country. But that is exactly why the question matters.
When people call for a “national road safety campaign”, are they asking for a return to big, TV-led public information advertising? More of what already exists? Greater investment? Better coordination between national and local? A single unifying message? Or something else entirely?
“We need a new national campaign” can sound like an answer, when really it should be the beginning of a more disciplined conversation.
Campaigns can be powerful. But only if the people delivering those campaigns are clear about the behaviour they are trying to change, why that behaviour is happening, who they need to reach, how they will know whether anything has shifted.
These are the questions she explores in her piece for TransportXtra, click the link to read the article in full.