The document summarizes a rail safety campaign in Melbourne called "Dumb Ways to Die" that used an entertaining song and animation to spread its message in a memorable and viral way. By embedding the safety message in catchy, shareable content, the campaign saw over 44,000 people pledge not to do dangerous things near trains. It reduced the number of near-misses on Melbourne's rail system while the viral video was shared widely on social media within its first few days, reaching millions of views. The success was attributed to delivering an important message in a format that people wanted to engage with and share with others.

1. DUMB WAYS TO DIE
Aaliya Jaffer
Erica Barbosa
Mahbuba Hussen

3. • Accident rates on the Melbourne Metro were rising, largely due
to an increase in risky behaviour around trains.
• A rail safety message was the last thing the audience wanted to hear and
traditional public safety messages just don't work on young people
• So they had to turn a message that people Needed to hear into a message that people
Wanted to hear and the way they did it was to embed their message into awesomely entertaining content.
• From day one, everything about this campaign was designed to be inherently
spreadable via social technologies.
THE STORY BEHIND IT…

4. Metro Trains claims it has achieved its rail safety aims, too: over 44,000 people in Melbourne
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.

5. The campaign video went viral through sharing and social media starting in November
2012.

6. "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.
"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."
GRAPHICS

7. "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 .
‘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.”
When asked about the creation of the video, one person said:

8. 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.
The music track was popular, too, charting on iTunes in 28 countries.
-It was viewed 2.5 million times within 48 hours and 4.7 million times within 72 hours.

9. “Dumb ways to Valentine”

10. “April Fools way to Die”