SCA USES THE POWER OF SOUND TO ‘BRING BACK THE WAVE’ AND ENCOURAGE SAFE DRIVING

 SCA Perth has revived a 1990s music favourite to help promote courtesy on Western Australian roads, as part of the Road Safety Commission of Western Australia’s latest advertising campaign.

The song Whoever You Are by Geggy Tah was researched using SCA’s exclusive partnership with global audio benchmarking leaders Veritonic, and features in all versions of the ‘Ride the Wave’ campaign, which runs across SCA’s WA metro and regional network of 36 frequencies.

The song and creative approach is also used in the Nine Network’s execution of the same campaign, and seeks to bring the ‘courtesy wave’ back to WA roads.

“Music has immense power in making people feel something instantly, and instinctively,” SCA’s Perth-based National Head of Creativity, Matt Dickson, said. “We knew if we chose the right song, that not only would it provide great recall and appeal for the campaign – it would also relax people and bring down stress levels, making for a more peaceful and courteous driving experience for everyone.”

Results from Veritonic testing showed the song was seen as the most ‘relaxed’ and ‘happy’ of all the songs tested. The song includes the lyrics: “All I want to do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are. You let me change lanes, while I was driving in my car.”

“We chose a few songs based on gut feel and the sentiment in the lyrics,” Dickson said. “Being able to research the emotional appeal of each track through Veritonic put some science behind the art. When we got the results back, we could see Geggy Tah’s Whoever You Are was a clear winner.”

The campaign runs for the next few months and uses the proximity of in-car listening to encourage drivers, while they are in the car, to consider others and exercise courtesy when possible.

“It was a terrific initiative from our SCA Perth Studio Team, with the support from the Road Safety Commission and the Longreach Media and Marketing agency, to utilise music as a contributor to the campaign,” SCA WA Head of Sales, Noel Quick, said.

“The other aspect of the campaign was our ability to communicate the message right across the entire state of WA, in a consistent and relevant way. Every one of our talent on the Hit and Triple M WA networks has a voice in this campaign, within their local markets. Live radio is such a relevant and effective way to deliver the message to the community.”