Romania is one of the European countries with the highest mortality rate in road accidents (91 dead to 1 million people in 2014), according to data provided by local authorities. The “FII TREAZ LA VOLAN!” Campaign (the title can be roughly translated to “Be awake at the wheel!”, although in Romanian the expression “be awake” can also refer to being sober, thus adding a double meaning to the campaign’s slogan and simultaneously addressing two major issues which affect road safety – alcohol and tiredness) was a national initiative dedicated to road safety and preventive driving, taking place in Romania between the 11th of July and the 15th of September 2016. Overall, the campaign focused on increasing the Romanian drivers’ awareness concerning the main risks that can lead to road accidents: alcohol, tiredness, using the mobile phone while driving, the use of drugs as well as the use of medicine that can affect driving.
Immediately after its official launch, “FII TREAZ LA VOLAN!” started gaining an increasingly significant momentum in the online and offline environments, benefitting from a strong support offered by well-known persons from the cultural, entertainment, sports, and digital fields. The unprecedented large scope of the positive reactions, coming from famous people representing a multitude of domains, set the campaign apart from similar initiatives and demonstrated, at the same time, the need for such an educational campaign in Romania, where statistics show an increase of road accidents and an overall lack of discipline among drivers.
Thus, in the first part of the campaign, famous singers (Nicu ALIFANTIS) and theatre artists (George IVASCU), sportsmen with an international reputation (Ionut IFTIMOAIE) as well as VIPs from the entertainment field (Dan FINTESCU, DJ OLIX) and even from the classical music field (Alexandru PETROVICI) recorded their video messages which were then shared on the campaign’s Facebook page, as well as their personal pages. The videos where seen, shared and liked by thousands of Romanian drivers. This “first wave” of video messages (testimonials) dedicated to road safety and preventive driving generated a second type of echoes in social media: it gathered a new number of VIP endorsers for the campaign, generating quick responses from well-known people ready to share their personal experiences behind the wheel and support “FII TREAZ LA VOLAN!”’s messages. At the end of August, many of the campaign’s videos and Facebook posts had reached thousands of drivers.
Overall, “FII TREAZ LA VOLAN!”’s messages were mainly distributed using two channels:
I) Online, through the campaign’s official Facebook page, were the following type of materials were published:
Other online activities also included:
II) Offline, through the campaign’s brochure, which was distributed nationally, through dedicated promoters handing the brochure in traffic, as well as through one of the most popular daily newspapers in Romania, as an insert. In total, 500,000 brochures were distributed nationally during the campaign.