Road Safety Week 2013
evaluation report
Prepared June 2013
Contents
- Summary...... page 2
- Funding...... page 3
- Partnership working……………………………………………………………………………….page 3
- Community involvement...... page 3
- Resources...... page 4
- Media campaign...... page 4
- Looking forward to 2012...... page 5
Summary
Road Safety Week is an annual event coordinated by the charity Brake, which works to stop deaths and injuries on roads and care for families who are bereaved or seriously injured in crashes.
Road Safety Week aims to raise awareness about the part we can all play in making our roads safer, particularly by encouraging and supporting communities, schools and organisations to run road safety activities at a grassroots level. Road Safety Week is an umbrella project, designed to attract involvement from a wide range of stakeholders and to stimulate the promotion of road safety awareness year-round.
The Road Safety Week pages of the Brake website, act as a hub of ideas and information for communities interested in getting involved. Brake also carries out marketing to encourage involvement from key groups, issues resources to those who sign up for the Week, and runs a media campaign during the Week at national and regional level, promoting road safety messages.
The second Road Safety Week New Zealand took place 6-12 May 2013, focusing on the theme ‘Streets for people’.The week coincided with the UN Global Road Safety Week which focused on pedestrian safety. Our campaign reminded everyone that road safety is about helping communities to get about safely, including on foot and bikes; not risking and taking lives through dangerous driving. We encouraged communities getting involved to address whatever road safety issues were of concern to them.
Partnership working was key to ensuring the success of the Week. Brake worked with agencies such as the NZTA, ACC, and emergency services in the run up to, and during the Week. Those agencies pledged their support for the Week and helped to demonstrate a collective approach to addressing road safety.
Marketing of the Week was achieved through mass emails to over 3,300 educator, organisation and community contacts, issuing ten press releases to key target media, and getting at least 10 partner organisations to promote and link to Road Safety Week. Thanks to this, community involvement was at the heart of the Week, with schools and colleges, community groups, companies and local authorities taking advantage of the Week to raise awareness of road safety locally, by running road safety promotions and campaigns.
316 schools, organisations and communities registered to take part in Road Safety Week via an online form. Some case studies of involvement activitiescan be viewed here.
To support involvement, Brake offered downloadable posterswith powerful road safety messages to all those who registered to take part in the Week.Brake also offered webinars for community groups, schools and companies providing guidance on organising effective activities during the Week and communicating key messages. In the run up to the Week, Brake also held a webinar aimed at fleet professionals on the topic of ‘Saving money through fleet risk management’ and promoted involvement in the Week. Brake also included Road Safety Week in its monthly e-bulletins to all contacts with ideas, tips and case studies to encourage active participation.
The Brake website, in particular the Road Safety Week webpages,saw a surge in traffic in the run-up to and during the Week – with 1,647unique visitors in March, April and Road Safety Week itself and 2,284 since the start of the year.
Brake was pleased with the media coverage generated from Road Safety Week. Brake issued press releases to national, regional and local press, plus specialist releases in the run up to the Week, and then issued releases at the start of the Week. A national event took place involving a photo call and filming opportunity in Auckland. Other official launch events took place in Wellington and Canterbury. Four bereaved and injured volunteers took part in the Week to highlight the devastation caused by crashes.At least 17 pieces of national, 25 regional, and 19 specialist/trade coverage were achieved.
Funding
In 2013,sponsorship of the Week was provided by business insurance specialist QBE, asheadline sponsor. The Week was also supported by the Road Safety Trust. Funding enabled us to promote the Week to communities and carry out media work in the run-up to and during the Week. It also enabled us to produce downloadable resources for communities, run online webinars for communities, hold a national launch event in Auckland and regional events in Wellington and Canterbury.
Brake would like to thankQBEand the Road Safety Trust for their vital support.
Partnership working
Brake was very pleased that in 2013 we worked closely with various national agencies in the run up to, and during, Road Safety Week. Agencies such as the NZTA, ACC and emergency services pledged their support of the Week and sent representatives to the launch event in Auckland (see further details below) along with Auckland Transport. In particular we worked closely with NZTA to ensure that the Week was aligned to the Safer Journeys strategy and are grateful to them for this support, and for providing quotes for use in press releases and on the Brake website to show their support.
Networks of road safety professionals were also kept informed of plans with the aim of ensuring those professionals knew about the aims of Road Safety Week and opportunities for involvement.
Brake will continue to work closely with these agencies towards Road Safety Week 2014.
Community involvement
Through the ethos of partnership working, Road Safety Week inspired communities across New Zealand to devote personal and professional time to activities raising awareness of key road safety issues.
Carrying out email and online marketing, developing the Road Safety Week web pages and distributing free resources enables Brake to encourage stakeholders (including schools, organisations and community groups) to get involved in Road Safety Week at no cost, other than the time they put in to running activities.
Brake announced Road Safety Week 2013 shortly after Road Safety Week 2012 had taken place. Marketing of Road Safety Week began in November 2012 and carried on in earnest from January 2013, with promotional emails sent to over 3,300 schools, organisations and individuals on Brake’s databases, plus a series of ten marketing press releases targeting specialist/trade media, and links and promotions set up with 10 partner organisations. This marketing encourages community involvement, directing traffic to the Road Safety Week web pages, and encouraging people to register to take part by completing an online form.
Emergency services, local authorities, schools, colleges, clubs, community groups and organisations took advantage of the Week to raise awareness of road safety locally, by running road safety promotions, campaigns, talks, workshops and demonstrations, displaying road safety posters and carrying out media work. Several organisations teamed up with others locally to get their messages out to a wider audience.
316 organisations registered to take part in the Week and 31 community involvement activities were reported directly to Brake via the online forms or emails to Brake. These break down as follows:
243 teachers and child carers registered
30 employers registered
25 road safety professionals, including emergency services personnel and health workers registered
9 community groups, campaigners and volunteers registered
5 parents registered
4 driving instructors registered
19 schools, colleges and kindy submitted information on their activities
4 employers submitted information on their activities
8 road safety professionals and community groups submitted information on their activities
Case study examples of the grassroots activities that took place in Road Safety Week 2013 are available onlinehereto inspire anyone thinking of running a road safety activity.
Resources for participants
Brake provided downloadable posters for use in Road Safety Week, along with fundraising resources for those fundraising for Brake during the Week. Using its extensive experience in developing road safety resources, Brake ensured the materials provided were powerful, carefully geared at the target audience, and contained simple but attention-grabbing messages on safer road user behaviour.
Posters were issued through an e-action pack to all those who signed up for the Week. The e-action pack also included hints and tips for organising successful activities. Three countdown bulletins were also issued in the run up to the Week with further ideas.
Brake also carried out work onthe Brake website ( including adding ideas and tips for getting involved to the Road Safety Week pages, information on planned activities by organisations, and adding case studies from people bereaved and seriously injured in road crashes.
Brake held online webinars on communicating road safety messages effectively and delivering Road Safety Week activities. The webinars were run free of charge and nine participants booked places from schools, community groups and companies.
A ‘Saving money through fleet risk management’ webinar was also held in the run up to Road Safety Week, aimed at fleet professionals. The webinar also included information about Road Safety Week and encouraged companies to take part.
Media campaign
Brake issued a press release to national and regional media, plus specialist outlets, promoting road safety messages under the ‘Streets for people’ theme. The press releases can be seen online here. These were issued and sold-in to media in the week running up to Road Safety Week, to generate interest in the campaign, and set up interviews for Brake staff and bereaved families.
A national event took placeat Stanley Bay School in Devonport, Auckland, involving a photo call and filming opportunity coordinated with various agencies and organisations. Two seriously injured Brake volunteers attended the launch to highlight the devastation caused by crashes.
Local road safety professionals and the emergency services played a key role in the event. Travelwise Ambassadors at the school demonstrated stopping distances of vehicles travelling at different speeds.
The media campaign was supported by Brake volunteers who had experienced abereavement or injury in a crash. Some of these volunteers gave media interviewsto give an insight into the devastation caused by crashes. In each case Brake spent time in the run up to the Week gathering and verifying information and writing up case studies, and liaising with the volunteers to ensure they felt comfortable and supported in their involvement in the campaign. These volunteers included:
- Michelle Vaneeden, from Auckland, who was hit by a car whilst crossing the road on her way to work earlier in 2013 and suffered serious injuries. Read more.
- Gary Farrow, from Auckland, whose car was hit by another vehicle whose driver had been drinking, and who suffered serious injuries. Read more.
- Brent and Christine Laurenson, whose 18 year old son Nathan died in a young driver crash near Plimmerton alongside his best friend. Read more.
Brakeresearched and analysed coverage that mentioned Road Safety Week. The following known coverage was achieved:
17 items of national media coverage:
-four television (Breakfast(TVNZ),3 News, Campbell Live and World TV);
-three radio (Newstalk ZB (x2), Radio Live);
-one press (The New Zealand Herald);
-nine online (including 3 News, One News, Yahoo and Voxy)
25 items of regional and local media coverage:
-two radio (95b, Free FM)
-11 press (such as Taupo Times, Taranaki Daily News, Fiordland Advocate)
-12 online(including Timaru Herald, Marlborough Express)
19 items of specialist, trade and consumer coverage:
-one radio (Rhema)
-one print (Police magazine)
-17 internet (such as Health Ed, Farmingshow, Play to Learn, Company Vehicle)
Links to some of the media coverage achieved:
Breakfast
3 News
Taranaki Daily News
Voxy
Yahoo
Company Vehicle
Looking forward to 2014
Brake is currently drawing up a detailed plan for the 2014 event. Brake has set the date as12-18May 2014.
We have selected our main theme for 2014 as Tune in to road safety, focusing on distractions for all road users. As with this year, our marketing will continue to emphasise thatcommunity involvement in the Week can focus on any road safety topic.
Our initial intentions in delivering next year’s Road Safety Week include to:
- begin marketing the Week at the end of 2013 to engage communities early and encourage planning of activities;
- continue to build Brake’s contacts and databases to reach a wider audience with marketing emails and e-bulletins;
- build further links with key organisations and associations to develop routes for marketing the Week and engaging members in activities;
- continue to work in partnership with external agencies in promoting and delivering Road Safety Week, such as NZTA, emergency services and local authority road safety coordinators;
- provide high quality electronic resources in the run-up to the Week, ensuring we are effectively directing participants to guidance and resources to support their activities;
- promote specific fundraising activities to particular audiences, which are relevant to the theme and include an awareness-raising element, such as Bright Days, to help improve the financial sustainability of the event;
- run a media launch on the Monday of the Week highlighting key messages;
- wherever possible, engage partners in different regions to run media launches that are linked to activities delivered by regional agencies;
- develop the Week’s online presence, particularly by securing online articles and links with key partners marketing involvement and driving traffic to the site;
- focus efforts on achieving widespread media coverage across New Zealand.
Brake will be developing this plan, in consultation with partners, and in light of feedback received from organisations and communities that took part in 2013. A more detailed proposal will be put together for the consideration of fundersand potential funders.
/Ends
1