Road Safety Week 2012 evaluation report
Prepared June 2012
1 Contents
Summary...... page 2
Funding...... page 3
Partnership working……………………………………………………………………………….page 3
Community involvement...... page 3
Resources...... page 3
Media coverage...... 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, www.brake.org.nz, 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 request them, and runs a media campaign during the Week at national and regional level, promoting road safety messages.
The first Road Safety Week New Zealand took place 7-13 May 2012, focusing on the theme ‘Together we can save lives’. Our campaign highlighted the fact that road safety is everyone’s concern and we all have a part to play in road safety. 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 2,500 educator, organisation and community contacts, issuing ten press releases to key target media, and getting at least 13 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.
172 schools, organisations and communities registered to take part in Road Safety Week via an online form. Some case studies of involvement activities can be viewed here.
To support involvement, Brake offered downloadable posters with powerful road safety messages to all those who registered to take part in the Week. Brake also offered a workshop to those in Auckland providing guidance on organising effective activities during the Week and communicating key messages, and held a webinar aimed at fleet professionals during Road Safety Week on the topic of ‘Managing road risk: back to
2 basics’. 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 Road Safety Week web pages saw a surge in traffic in the run-up to and during the Week – with 1,500 unique visitors in March, April and Road Safety Week itself.
Brake was pleased with the media coverage generated from Road Safety Week. Brake issued a press release to national, regional and local press, plus specialist releases. A national event took place involving a photo call and filming opportunity in Auckland. Five bereaved and injured volunteers took part in the Week to highlight the devastation caused by crashes. The Week was covered by at least 13 national, nine regional and 15 specialist/trade outlets.
Funding
In 2012 national sponsorship of the Week was provided by business insurance specialist QBE, as headline sponsor. Funding enabled us to carry out media and promotional work in the run-up to and during the Week. It also enabled us to produce downloadable resources for communities and hold a national launch event in Auckland.
Brake would like to thank QBE for their vital support.
Partnership working
Brake was very pleased that in 2012 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 such as Trafinz and SASTA 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 2013.
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 2012 shortly after the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety launch in 2011. Marketing of Road Safety Week began in earnest in January 2012, with promotional emails sent to over 2,500 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 13 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.
3 172 organisations registered to take part in the Week and 26 community involvement activities were reported directly to Brake via the online forms or emails to Brake. These break down as follows:
144 teachers and child carers registered 6 employers registered 10 road safety professionals, including emergency services personnel and health workers registered 12 community groups, campaigners and volunteers registered 18 schools, colleges and kindy submitted information on their activities 4 employers submitted information on their activities 4 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 2012 are available online here to 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 to more than 170 schools, organisations and communities that registered to take part.
Brake also carried out work on the Brake website (www.brake.org.nz), 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 a workshop in Auckland on communicating road safety messages effectively and delivering Road Safety Week activities. The workshop was run free of charge and was attended by 12 participants from schools, community groups, companies and road safety organisations.
A ‘Managing road risk: back to basics’ webinar was also held during Road Safety Week aimed at fleet professionals and looking at reviewing fleet safety policies and procedures and making the business case for fleet safety to the board. 45 delegates registered for the event, with 21 participants on the day.
Media campaign
Brake issued a press release to national and regional media, plus specialist outlets, promoting road safety messages under the ‘Together we can save lives’ 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 place in Aotea Square, Auckland, involving a photo call and filming opportunity coordinated with emergency services, the local authority, community representatives and a local school. A bereaved Brake volunteer attended the launch to highlight the devastation caused by crashes.
Local road safety professionals, including police, fire officers and St John played a key role in the event, giving a demonstration and talk to the children that media could photograph.
The media campaign was supported by Brake volunteers who had experienced a bereavement or injury in a crash. Some of these volunteers gave media interviews to 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:
Mark Ebery, the husband of Prue Ebery from Auckland, who was killed as a passenger in a crash in 2009. Mark was injured in the crash. Read more. 4 Brent and Christine Laurenson, whose 18 year old son Nathan died in a young driver crash near Plimmerton alongside his best friend. Read more. Deborah Hambly from Dargaville, whose partner Eileen Shick was killed in a crash in 2010. Read more.
Brake researched and analysed coverage that mentioned Road Safety Week. The following coverage was achieved:
13 items of national media coverage: - two television (Breakfast(TVNZ) and World TV); - two radio (Newstalk ZB and George FM); - four press (including The New Zealand Herald and Dominion Post); - five online (including 3 News, One News, Yahoo and Scoop)
Nine items of regional media coverage: - one radio (Plains FM) - seven press (such as Rodney Times, The Press, Otago Daily Times) - one online (Channel 9, Dunedin)
15 items of specialist, trade and consumer coverage: - one radio (Rhema) - 14 internet (such as Education Weekly, RYDA NZ, NZTA, Health Pages)
Looking forward to 2013
Brake is currently drawing up a detailed plan for the 2013 event. Brake has set the date as 6-12 May 2013 – to coincide with the UN Global Road Safety Week.
We have selected our main theme for 2013 as Streets for People, to link with the theme of the Global Road Safety Week which is pedestrian safety. As with this year, our marketing will continue to emphasise that community 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 2012 to engage communities earlier 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 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 2012. A more detailed proposal will be put together for the consideration of funders and potential funders.
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