A PSA needn’t be boring – or brutal
Long associated with brutal campaigns, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) shifted its creative approach after an agency change in 2012. “Because we are a crown corporation that aims to modify driving habits, we tend to be conservative,” says Patrice Letendre, strategic adviser at SAAQ. “But we really got out of our comfort zone when we started to work with lg2. We used to show the dramatic consequences of speed, alcohol, tiredness or texting while driving. They convinced us to catch attention differently. The result is less gore but just as memorable.”
• Its “Don’t text and drive” campaign, for example, showed how foolish it is to text while driving by showing people behaving similarly throughout history: a man in a cart writing with a feather, another in an old car using a telegraph, a woman from the 60s driving while typing. Just before the image shifted to present days, showing a young man texting behind the wheels, a voiceover says: “We didn’t use to write messages while driving. There must have been a good reason.” The campaign was recognized with two golds at the 2013 Marketing Awards.
• In Cannes, SAAQ and lg2 won a Bronze Lion with simple, but effective print executions showing torsos and security belts. The individuals’ date of birth and death are written on their shirts, with the death date obscured by the belt. Another TV spot, “Anthem of shame,” got a bronze Clio and a Grand Prize at the Créas. It shows people blowing into a breathalyser, to produce the sombre tune of the Funeral March of Queen Mary. Letendre says that in the last year, SAAQ beat all governmental agencies on awards and nominations. “We stopped counting at 40.”
• Last Fall, the corporation got international coverage with another unusual campaign, which brought ghosts into CÉGEPs. In the bathrooms, 3D screens were installed behind one-way mirrors. When a presence was detected, the mirror would show a video of the “ghosts” of young people who died in car accidents, explaining what happened. Le Point and other French media talked about it. And the SAAQ was invited to present its 2012-2013 advertising strategy at a European conference to be held in January 2014. “The people in charge told us our campaigns drew attention in several EU countries.”
You can find out who will be named our Marketer of the Year on Jan. 29 at our Best of 2013 cocktail party. Want to attend? Lots of important people will be there. Visit us online for more information.
