THINK! Country Roads Campaign (autumn 2016)


Organisation: Department for Transport
Date uploaded: 9th November 2016
Date published/launched: October 2016


The THINK! team relaunched the ‘Country Roads’ campaign on 26 October and it will run until the end of November 2016.The campaign is targeting drivers aged 25-34 years, using the message ‘Brake before the bend, not on it’. Evaluation shows that this age group did reduce their speed into bends following the 2015 campaign.

59% of all road fatalities occur on country roads, and in 2015, 10,307 people were killed or seriously injured on country roads in Great Britain. The number of people killed on country roads is 10 times higher than on motorways.

The biggest contributory factor to killed or seriously injured casualties on rural roads is loss of control, which is frequently associated with inappropriate speed at bends.

The THINK! Country Roads campaign aims to get drivers to anticipate the hazards that may lie ahead and reduce their speed into bends.

A survey carried out prior to the 2015 campaign showed that problems on country roads are most acute among young drivers.

A third confessed to braking too late before a bend and more than one in 10 admitted to ‘taking the racing line’ by crossing into the opposite side of the road. Young drivers are also the most likely to overtake on a bend without a clear road ahead.

The 2016 Country Roads campaign will include a re-run of the existing ‘If you could see’ creative in cinema, radio and online.

For social, the campaign will feature new assets around the theme ‘You don’t know what’s around the corner’ which will be distributed mid-way through the campaign. The ‘helpful hazards’ content, which was first used last year, will also be used on social channels. These films show farm animals and agricultural equipment being used to warn drivers of the potential hazards on country roads.

Throughout the campaign the THINK! team will be sharing digital content, key facts and campaign information on the THINK! Facebook and Twitter pages. Road safety teams were encouraged to share these posts or create their own, and link to the THINK! website (for Twitter posts) or share content from YouTube or Facebook.

THINK! will be using GPS devices to measure actual changes in drivers’ speed on country roads in order to research the campaign and the effect it has on driving behaviour.

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