2. Metro Trains
Melbourne
• Known commonly as simply
'Metro'
• The franchise operator of the
suburban railway network of
Melbourne, Australia.
• It is a joint venture between the
Hong Kong-based MTR
Corporation (60%), John Holland
Group (20%) and UGL Rail (20%).
• Metro Trains Melbourne was
selected as the new operator by
the State Government of Victoria.
• 30 November 2009. It has an
eight-year contract with the
option of being extended for a
further seven years.
• Operates a fleet of 407 three-
car train sets on 837
kilometers (520 miles) of
track.
• 228 million customer boarding
each year, over 14,000 services
each week and carries over
415,000 passengers each
weekday.
3. Dumb Ways to Die: Campaign
• Australian public service
announcement campaign by Metro
Trains in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,
to promote rail safety.
• The campaign was devised by
advertising agency McCann Melbourne.
• It appeared in newspapers, local radio,
outdoor advertising, throughout the
Metro Trains network and on Tumblr.
• The safety campaign video went viral
through YouTube, quickly being sharing
all over social media.
• 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.”
4. Dumb Ways to Die: Campaign
• Metro Trains, didn't want a typical gloom-and-
doom public service ad. McCann decided to go
down the route of entertainment.
• Young people in Melbourne, Australia had
exhibited absent minded and foolish
behaviour around trains, some resulting in
injury and death.
• Writing some hilarious lyrics to a song about
all the dumb ways to die—such as poking a
grizzly bear, selling both your kidneys on the
internet or using your privates as piranha
bait—to underline the message that you need
to be safe around trains because one of the
dumbest ways to die is to get hit by one.
• McCann estimated that within two weeks, it
had generated at least $50 million worth of
global media value in addition to more than
700 media stories, for
"a fraction of the cost of one TV ad"
5. Campaign
• According to Metro Trains, the campaign contributed to a more
than 30% reduction in "near-miss" accidents, from 13.29
near-misses per million kilometers in November 2011 –
January 2012, to 9.17 near-misses per million kilometers in
November 2012 – January 2013.
• Over 127 million people having stated that they would be
safer around trains because of the campaign.
6. 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.
• It was performed by Emily Lubitz, the
lead vocalist of Tinpan Orange, with
McGill providing backing vocals.
• It was released on iTunes, attributed to
the artist "Tangerine Kitty" (a reference
to Tinpan Orange and The Cat Empire).
• Within days of its launch, the song
entered the top 10 chart of iTunes. By
July 2013, it had sold 100,000 copies.
The Dumb Ways to Die channel on
YouTube has now amassed over 200
million views.
Chart (2012-13) Peak
Position
Belgium (Ultratip Flanders) 9
Netherlands (Single Top 100) 94
UK Indie (Official Charts Company) 38
7. • The first step…to produce and record a
music video entitled ‘Dumb Ways To
Die’ (DWTD), which would become the
main shareable piece of content.
• The video was originally seeded to a
single reporter.
“It was the transport topic
reporter for Melbourne’s main
newspaper. We thought that he
could contextualise the campaign
well for us, because he
understood the issue of rail
safety. We knew that there was a novelty
value to the campaign so we
wanted the first report on the
campaign to be on the issue we
tackle. He did that!”
• Uploaded to YouTube on 14 November 2012 and made public two days
later.
• It featured "twenty-one characters killing themselves in increasingly
stupid ways“
• culminating in the last three characters being killed by trains due to
unsafe behavior.
• It was viewed 2.5 million times within 48 hours
• and 4.7 million times within 72 hours.
• Within two weeks, the video had been viewed 30 million times.
• As of December 2015, the video received over 117 million views.
Video
8. Dumb Ways to Die
Developer(s) Julian Frost
Samuel Baird
Publisher(s) Metro Trains Melbourne
Platform(s) iOS, Android
Release date(s) iOS
May 6, 2013
Android
September 17, 2013
Genre(s) Action game, Puzzle game
Mode(s) Single-player
Game
• May 2013, Metro released a "Dumb Ways to Die"
game as an app for iOS devices.
• An Android version was also eventually released in
September 2013.
• Within the app, players can also pledge to “not do
dumb stuff around trains.
• The aim of the game is to earn as many points as
possible by avoiding "dying" in one of the activities.
Lives can be lost by "dying" in one of the activities.
The player has three chances to prevent the
characters from dying.
• A sequel was made in November 2014.
• In the sequel, there are a lot more varieties of
challenges in each particular building, and
each building has a particular theme
• 8 challenges each in every building.
• Bonus points can be earned at the end of the
game.
• Like the original game, the game's characters
do plenty of dangerous and unsafe activities
9. Game
• The first game app, Dumb Ways to Die, climbed to number one in 22
countries including the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
• It now has over 130 million downloads
• 3 billion unique plays coming from every country in the world.
• November 2014, Dumb Ways to Die 2.
• It became the number one app in 83 countries
• more than 65 million people pledging to be safe around trains.
• The Games now has over 75 million downloads
• 1.2 billion unique plays coming from every country in the world.
Dumb Ways JR.
• Before the Dumb Ways characters grew up, they
were already making mischief in all sorts of
places – kitchens, planes, and of course, trains!
• Take Loopy and his friends on a train trip! Pick
them up and drop them off at different stations.
Build your own train track and add fun items to
the scene. Pull the handle to hear the train
whistle. Toot, toot – let’s go!
• Loopy’s Train Set draws on the inherent fun of
train sets, engaging children in open-ended play
and problem solving.
10. Censorship
• In February 2013, the Russian government agency in charge of Internet censorship,
for including the video. Later that day, the YouTube video was also censored, with the
“This content is not available in your country due to a legal complaint from the
government” message.
• Despite this fact, the video was included into ABC Show and was shown in more than
50 cities of Russia. Awards
• Won seven Webby Awards in 2013 including the Best Animation Film & Video
and Best Public Service & Activism (Social Content & Marketing).
• Won three Siren Awards.
• Including the Gold Siren for best advertisement of the year.
• Silver Sirens for the best song and best campaign.
• Awarded the Grand Trophy in the 2013 New York Festivals International
Advertising Awards.
• June 2013, the campaign clip won the Integrated Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions
International Festival of Creativity.
• Overall, won five Grand Prix awards
• 18 Gold Lions
• 3 Silver Lions
• 2 Bronze Lions
• Which was the most for the campaign in the festival's history
11. Parodies
•"Cool Things to Find" - featuring the Curiosity
Mars rover. Cinesaurus noted that it took them six
days and 250 man hours to create.
•"Dumb Movie Ways to Die" - from The Movie
Maniacs parodies well known "dumb" movie deaths
from famous films.
•"Grand Theft Auto V: Dumb Ways To Die"
•"Annoying Ways to Die" from Annoying Orange, as
noted by Socialtimes
•"The Walking Dead + Dumb Ways to Die Parody" -
live-action parody of characters from The Walking
Dead
•"Smart Ways to Live" by The Maccabeats - a
cappella version as noted by Arutz Sheva.
•Happy Tree Friends Dumb ways to die
•My Little Pony Dumb Ways to Die - a version
featuring the ponies from My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic
Life Insurance Partnership
• Due to their success, the Dumb Ways to Die
characters have been featured in a promotional
campaign for Empire Life Insurance, with their key
message being, “the dumbest way to die is without
life insurance.”
12. • Ensure longevity, McCann continued to take
the campaign into new areas–cuddly toys
based on the characters.
• Even an educational book.
