The Government’s award-winning road safety campaign THINK! has launched a new partnership with the world’s most popular live streaming service, Twitch, to encourage safe driving among young men.
To reach the Twitch community authentically with the Good Driver campaign, THINK! first ran tailored video advertising across the Twitch service in the UK, created by Twitch’s in-house Brand Partnerships Studio. Two popular British Twitch streamers sips_ and KingJae were then challenged by THINK! to take turns riding in the passenger seat of each other’s virtual vehicles, during the associated Shotgun Duo Challenge, winning channel subscriptions for their community as they demonstrated safe driving.
King Jae said of the event: “my community is really important to me and the idea that I could spread some awareness of this important issue while potentially helping to keep them safe was really interesting. And we get to have fun together, play games and interact while we do it!”
The THINK! Good Driver campaign aims to spark a conversation about road safety by encouraging young men in particular to consider the risks of speeding and distracted driving, and to champion those drivers who don’t take risks on the road.
While casualty figures overall have plateaued in recent years, young male drivers aged 17 to 24 are still 4 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than drivers aged 25 and over, per billion miles travelled.
The first section of the two live broadcasts featured a ‘driving workshop’, with streamers learning about the key issues using information supplied by the THINK! campaign.
Instead of going head-to-head, the streamers then competed against each other as part of the THINK! Shotgun Duo Challenge. The twist being that points were awarded to the passenger for demonstrating safe driving, rather than for racing in the fastest time. Each time a driver demonstrated safe driving, their score increased, gaining more rewards for the passenger’s Twitch community in the form of channel subscriptions.
Following the livestreamed challenge, Twitch streamers sips_ and KingJae then discussed what they had learnt from the THINK! Shotgun Duo Challenge with each other and with their communities using the live chat feed that is central to the Twitch service.
The campaign, which aims to encourage safe driving among young men, has already seen fantastic engagement with the kick-off activation that saw streamers sips_ and KingJae taking turns to ride in the passenger seat of each other’s virtual vehicles had over 140,000 views for over 700,000 minutes.