Marketing Case Analysis - (Case: Dumb Ways to Die)

Submitted by Group 13, Section A

I. Case facts :a. Traditional public service ads focusing on deaths and instructing to take safe

measures did not seem to have any impact on the carelessness of the customers.b. McCann advertising agency was given the responsibility to design a new public

service campaign around train safety targeting the young audience with a limited budget of $200,000.

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c. 'Dumb Ways to die' proved to be a very effective campaign; in the first 10 days it gathered 27,000 votes and later on it gathered 30 million Youtube hits. It led to a reduction of 21% in serious train accidents.

II. Statement of the Problem:a. Number of accidents in Melbourne was increasing.b. Serious incidents in Victoria went up to 28 in 2011 from 21 in 2008.c. Metro Trains Melbourne (MT) was trying to develop a new Public Service

Announcement, which would reduce the carelessness of the young people around trains. One of the main objectives was to design a train safety campaign and create a buzz out of it so that it would become a part of the daily discussions of people's lives.

III. Causes of the Problem:a. Carelessness of people [especially teenagers] around trains was increasing the number

of deaths in accidents around trains. b. People were not aware that that being careless around trains can actually cause serious

accidents and also might lead to deaths in some cases. Thus they were casual around trains without thinking of the consequences.

IV. Decision Criteria and Alternative Solutions:

Decision Criteria:-

In order to reach a precise and captive audience in a low budget manner, there are different ways of targeting and communicating with the audience in traditional as well as non-traditional marketing. In this case, the different alternatives we would like to suggest include Guerrilla marketing, interactive marketing and cross- promotion, social gaming and campaign marketing i.e., events & competitions. The decision criteria which served as a basis for evaluation of different alternatives are:

1. Reach : It refers to the total number of individuals or households exposed to the campaign during a given period. For any given viewer, they have been "reached" by the work if they have viewed it at all during a specified period.

Reach can be measured by the number of flyers , posters and other such means distributed in case of guerrilla marketing; the number of people actively involved in promoting their stations using social media and other means in case of cross-promotion; the number of players involved in social gaming and the number of competitors enrolled in campaign marketing.

2. Frequency: Frequency is the average number of times an advertisement or marketing initiative is shown to an individual or a household. Frequency is usually measured by the facts and statistics as illustrated in the campaign calendar.

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3. Relevance: Relevance refers to how important and relevant the content of the campaign is to the target audience, i.e., if they feel it is important to the matter at hand. Relevance is typically based on market research including actual responses of audience to the campaign. In cases of campaign marketing (eg - video making), it can be measured by the number of views per video.

4. Communication effectiveness : Communication effectiveness essentially refers to how successful a marketing campaign is in delivering the information to the target audience. To measure communication effectiveness, an in-home test can be done both before and after the advertisement is put into media and after it is broadcasted. In an in-home test, a video is taken or downloaded into the homes of target audience, who then view the campaign and the effectiveness is tested. This measure can be adopted in case of campaign marketing as well as guerrilla marketing.

IV. Alternative strategies:

Guerrilla Marketing:

Public Service Announcements are usually unattractive, static and highly unnoticed by audience and hence are ineffective. If the budget is small, Guerrilla marketing can be executed. This low cost, unconventional way of marketing involves using graffiti, sticker bombing, flyers etc. This can be done only in railway stations to reach the targeted audience at seasonal intervals every year.

Pros:

a. Cost to reach is much higher.b. Chance of going viral is high.

Cons:

a. Because of the nature of guerrilla marketing, the message and objective must be clearly defined in order to avoid being misunderstood or confusion.

b. They run considerable risk of backlash.

Interactive marketing & cross promotion:

We can have a game/competition arranged among all the stations. : The station with the minimum number of accidents in it would be the winner of the game. And a banner can be placed in each station showing the number of days it has operated without accidents.

This would encourage the people in that vicinity & community to be more cautious for that cause. The message of safety in trains can be indirectly placed in the minds of people. We can have facebook pages and twitter accounts for this campaign on social media to spread the word of mouth about the campaign. The number of

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likes, posts, comments, and shares on this platform could help us evaluate the erach of this campaign.

Pros:

a. The audience will try to be more responsible & carefulb. The reach depends upon how individual perception & response of the message

takes place.

Cons:

a. The accidents taking place in level crossing can not be accounted..

Social gaming:

A social gaming application can be developed to attract the audience who are inclined towards gaming (generally the youth). This is the segment of people who are more careless and more probable for an accident. The moral influence through their peers will have a nuclear reaction on information transmission.

Pros:

a. The social gaming can boost the reach with children & youth in particular.b. The exact effectiveness is each to evaluate.

Cons:

a. It would be limited just within the audience who are game enthusiasts.

V. Recommendation:Out of the alternative solutions given, the one that we recommend is the Interactive marketing & cross promotion as this is the most suitable among the three. The competitive feeling among the train boarders would encourage them to become more careful and aware towards safety rules. Gradually there would be a shift in their behaviour and the objective could be achieved. Moreover, the recommended solution fits under all the 5 Ms of advertising which is shown in the flowchart.

MISSION MONEY MESSAGE

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Objective of creating awareness about

safety measures is fulfilled

The cost for the entire campaign will be well under budget due to

the use of social media and other conventional

media

The message generation along with the awareness should be automatically created as the result of self-involvement of mass .

MEDIA MEASUREMENT

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Major media types that can be used are bill boards (print) at stations, social media (facebook and twitter), and T.V.

The count for the accidents that occurred can be easily tracked for all the locations. The program’s reach can be measured by the likes and shares of the facebook and twitter pages for the campaign.