Research

1. Monday, 9 March 2015
Dumb Ways To Die Notes
Notes
- http://adage.com/article/global-news/dumb-ways-die-game-a-hit-internationally/
296063/
- Game Is a Hit in 81 Countries
- Australian train safety campaign's iPhone app hit No. 1 in 53 markets and became the
top iPad app in 81 countries, according to data from App Annie.
- REASON:morbidly adorable animations, catchy tune and wacky lyrics were a hit with
kids who might ordinarily be turned off by public service announcements about train
safety.
- Those games don't have much to do with trains, but reminders about railway safety
pop up throughout.
- The app is free, but players can make in-app purchases, e.g making the game ad-free
or buy tokens. Metro Trains plans to invest them back into safety messaging.
- "This has really become a self-funding, ongoing campaign," said Leah Waymark,
general manager for corporate relations and business development of Metro Trains
Melbourne.
- Metro Trains is also planning an online store to sell merchandise like plush toys.
- So why an app? "Kids don't look at print ads, they probably ignore most posters, and
every parent knows how hard it is to get kids' heads out of fun, engaging computer
games," said Pat Baron, executive creative director at McCann Melbourne.
- "We live our lives now in the digital world, and if we're going to engage with children, if
we want them to listen to the message, we've got to do it in a way that's engaging, the
comes at the right place and the right time, in a way it will be accepted.”
- http://creativity-online.com/work/metro-trains-dumb-ways-to-trick-or-treat-treat/37690
- Dumb ways to die halloween edition.
- http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/hrqm/
- Character Plushies
- Squeeze them to hear a chorus of "Dumb Ways to Die."
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2. Monday, 9 March 2015
- http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dumb-ways-die-sings-deck-halls-holidays-162025
- Tangerine Kitty performs a DWTD version of "Deck the Halls”. The lyrics warn against
overloading electrical sockets to power festive lights or nibbling on toxic mistletoe.
("Christmas is a time to cherish/Don't be dumb or you will perish!")
- The song is available to buy on iTunes, earnings will be benefiting the Salvation Army
Christmas Appeal.
- http://mashable.com/2014/10/28/dumb-ways-to-die-2/
- On Oct. 23, the company
released a teaser for their
second game "Dumb Ways
To Die 2: The Games", in
which players will have to
save the characters from
dying from training injuries.
The new version comes out
in November.
- They also released short
teasers of the character at
the gym with real people and dying.
- http://www.brandrepublic.com/article/1280886/dumb-ways-die-enjoys-bloody-valentine
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3. Monday, 9 March 2015
- Also released a Valentine’s day
version
-
- https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/campaigns/dumb-ways-to-die.html
- THE STORY behind: Accident rates on the Melbourne Metro were rising, largely due
to an increase in risky behaviour around trains. But a rail safety message was the
last thing our audience wanted to hear and traditional public safety messages just
don't work on young people: tell them to do one thing and they'll do the opposite.
- So we had to turn a message that people needed to hear into a message that people
wanted to hear. The way we did it was to embed our message into awesomely
entertaining content.
- From day one, everything about this campaign was designed to be inherently
spreadable via social technologies.
-Videos on Youtube.
-21 animated GIFs on Tumblr.
-links on the description box: to purchase the song on iTunes, download it for free via
Soundcloud, visit our website and get free GIFs off our Tumblr site.
Results:
- Schools worldwide adopted the campaign material for classroom use.
- Nearly 100 cover versions of the video on YouTube. and it’s still spreading. https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vqAa95EplE -Parody dumb ways to die in a film.
- The key to its success is the fact that a worthy message has been embedded into
content of such high quality that people are actually paying money to purchase it. To
be truly sharable, that’s how good your content must be.
- http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1187124/dumb-ways-die-story-behind-
global-marketing-phenomenon
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4. Monday, 9 March 2015
- http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1229233/
-
- http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1187124/dumb-ways-die-story-behind-
global-marketing-phenomenon
- Marketing spoke to Chloe Alsop, marketing manager at Metro Trains in Melbourne,
Australia, about the runaway success of its "dumb ways to die" viral campaign:
- The music track was popular, too, charting on iTunes in 28 countries.
- Metro Trains claims it has achieved its rail safety aims, too: over 44,000 Melbournians
pledged "not to do dumb things around trains" in the four months after the campaign
launched.
- The November to January period, the operator claimed it had seen a year-on-year
reduction in the number of "near-misses", from 13.29 to 9.17.
- DWTD won the Grand Prix in the PR, direct marketing and radio categories at the
Cannes Lions.
- What was the original thinking behind the campaign?
- "Metro didn't have a safety campaign in market. We had safety information and
instruction at stations, but nothing to influence safe behaviour or show we care
about the safety of our customers. We also needed to listen to our front line
employees who dealt with unsafe behaviours on going.
- "When we – myself and the agency team [McCann Melbourne] – started speaking to
them and looking at imagery and reports from the safety team, we kept coming back
to the same thing: it’s really hard to get hit by a train. A wrong or careless behaviour
is required.
- Why did you select this creative approach?
- "I didn't want shock. I didn't want gore or negative imagery that would offend. I didn’t
want to tug at the heart strings and make people cry .
- "So we started from there - how do we, without offending or blaming, tell people to
stop doing dumb things around trains? And target primarily youth. How do we get
young kids to think about train safety, which even I can admit is a pretty boring topic?
- "‘Dumb Ways’ is something that people want to engage with, and then share. Through
the lyrics and charming animation the message subtlety gets through. Kids
aren’t scared of dying, but they definitely don't want their friends to think they are
stupid.”
- Why has it proved so popular?
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5. Monday, 9 March 2015
- "It’s different. It’s cute as hell and it gets stuck in your head. And it’s not until the last
three seconds that it is actually telling the consumer to do anything. I think people are
immune now to most call to action in advertising unless there's a big incentive.
- What do you think it says about consumers today?
- "I think people still like to engage with things that trigger positive emotional
responses. Cute, a bit silly, happy melody, soft colours all were attributes that made
people feel good while they engaged with the campaign."
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumb_Ways_to_Die
Basics:Dumb Ways to Die is a public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains
in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to promote rail safety.
The campaign video went viral through sharing and social media starting in November
2012.
The campaign was created by advertising agency McCann Melbourne.
Appeared in newspapers, local radio, outdoor advertising, throughout the Metro Trains
network and on Tumblr.
John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann, said “The aim of this campaign is
to engage an audience that really doesn't want to hear any kind of safety message, and
we think Dumb Ways To Die will.”
According to Metro Trains, the campaign contributed to a more than 30% reduction in
"near-miss" accidents, from 13.29 near-misses per million kilometres in November 2011
– January 2012, to 9.17 near-misses per million kilometres in November 2012 – January
2013.
Video
-The video was developed by Pat Baron, animated by Julian Frost, and produced by
Cinnamon Darvall.
-It was released on youtube 14th November 2012
-It featured "twenty-one characters killing themselves in increasingly stupid ways”
culminating in the last three characters being killed by trains due to unsafe behaviour.
-It was viewed 2.5 million times within 48 hours and 4.7 million times within 72 hours.
-McCann released an "Official Karaoke Edition" of the video on 26 November 2012.
Song
The song "Dumb Ways to Die" from the video was written by John Mescall with music by
Ollie McGill from The Cat Empire, who also produced it.
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6. Monday, 9 March 2015
-It was performed by Emily Lubitz, the lead vocalist of Tinpan Orange, with McGill
providing backing vocals.(Refered to as Tangerine Kitty)
-It was released on iTunes.
Game
-May 2013, Metro released a "Dumb Ways to Die" game for iOS devices.Android version
was released in September.
-Developed by Julian Frost and Samuel Baird,invites players to avoid the dangerous
activities engaged in by the various characters featured throughout the campaign.
-Players can also pledge to “not do dumb stuff around trains.”
-The aim of the game is to earn as much points as possible by avoiding "dying" in one of
the activities. Lives can be lost by "dying" in one of the activities. The game ends by
losing all of the lives.
-A sequel was made in November 2014. It contains more challenges which differ from
building to building, each with its own theme.
-Before a train arrives at a building, the player plays a challenge to counter something
related to trains.
-There are 8 challenges each in every building. The winning and losing aspect, remains
the same a the original game.
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