A local company effecting change through social media

Before I go into the details of how a campaign for safer roads in Sussex (where I’m from) is achieving world-wide recognition from some of the major players online, I want you to first take a minute to watch the video that’s at the centre of it :

The online video is part of a campaign for safer roads in Sussex by the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) called ‘Embrace Life‘. It was written and directed by Daniel Cox and since it’s launch on the 20th January has reached over 1 million views online, currently standing at 1,059,624 (at time of writing). Impressive figures for any company, let alone a local council whose only goal is to spread the message of safety on the roads. Add to that the fact that the ad is due to be screened at a Ted conference this weekend in front of Bill Gates, requests to air on national and state TV channels in the U.S., endorsement from Ryan Seachrest of American Idol (!), a Facebook group with over 1,000 members – set up by an individual who was lobbying for the ad to be aired on national TV and you clearly have a very impressive, and very worthy social media campaign.

So how did they do it? At the heart of this campaign and the video itself, are people. The concept of the ad drives this home strongly. But what is even more impressive is that locality was key. This wasn’t intended to receive the kind of national coverage it has done, but to promote road safety to the citizens of Sussex. The strength and the message of the video has seen it grow beyond this though. What I like about this campaign is that it is reflective of the place it is focused on – knowing your market is the path to success. Guerilla marketing was key here and the people behind it wanted to do something different. Anyone that knows Brighton knows that it is a vibrant city with a thriving culture that’s always been a little bit ‘alternative’. So the campaign stuck to these true values and used a well-known graffitti artist to transform public places in Brighton into works of art

The team also reached out to cultural groups by sending heat-reactive postcards to various media and culture groups – what some would call ‘the influencers’. It is this combination of an excellent piece of content with real-world promotional activity that is responsible for the success of the campaign. This clearly wasn’t a big budget piece, but the beauty of social media is that it doesn’t have to be. With a bit of money and a lot of the right minds you can clearly achieve great things and this campaign is a testament to that. I mean, what company wouldn’t pay for some recognition from Ze Frank?

The rate at which this video and awareness of the SSRP is growing on a global scale is staggering. Mentions in  New York Daily News , regular conversation on Twitter, views from 112 different countries and all this with only having launched on 20th January. A viral campaign if ever there was one and they weren’t even calling it that. As someone who comes from Brighton it is personally rewarding to see the city receiving global recognition and as someone that works in social media, it is fantastic to see a local organisation punching above their weight and keeping up with the big players

Who Are We?

Simply Zesty are a Social Media Agency located in Dublin, Ireland who offer a range of Social Media Services.