Monday, 9 March 2015

Dumb Ways To Die Notes

Notes - http://adage.com/article/global-news/dumb-ways-die-game-a-hit-internationally/

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- Game Is a Hit in 81 Countries

- Australian train safety campaign's iPhone app hit No. 1 in 53 markets and became the top iPad app in 81 countries, according to data from App Annie.

- REASON:morbidly adorable animations, catchy tune and wacky lyrics were a hit with kids who might ordinarily be turned off by public service announcements about train safety.

- Those games don't have much to do with trains, but reminders about railway safety pop up throughout.

- The app is free, but players can make in-app purchases, e.g making the game ad-free or buy tokens. Metro Trains plans to invest them back into safety messaging.

- "This has really become a self-funding, ongoing campaign," said Leah Waymark, general manager for corporate relations and business development of Metro Trains Melbourne.

- Metro Trains is also planning an online store to sell merchandise like plush toys.

- So why an app? "Kids don't look at print ads, they probably ignore most posters, and every parent knows how hard it is to get kids' heads out of fun, engaging computer games," said Pat Baron, executive creative director at McCann Melbourne.

- "We live our lives now in the digital world, and if we're going to engage with children, if we want them to listen to the message, we've got to do it in a way that's engaging, the comes at the right place and the right time, in a way it will be accepted.”

- http://creativity-online.com/work/metro-trains-dumb-ways-to-trick-or-treat-treat/37690

- Dumb ways to die halloween edition.

- http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/hrqm/

- Character Plushies

- Squeeze them to hear a chorus of "Dumb Ways to Die."

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Monday, 9 March 2015- http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dumb-ways-die-sings-deck-halls-holidays-162025

- Tangerine Kitty performs a DWTD version of "Deck the Halls”. The lyrics warn against overloading electrical sockets to power festive lights or nibbling on toxic mistletoe. ("Christmas is a time to cherish/Don't be dumb or you will perish!")

- The song is available to buy on iTunes, earnings will be benefiting the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal.

- http://mashable.com/2014/10/28/dumb-ways-to-die-2/

- On Oct. 23, the company released a teaser for their second game "Dumb Ways To Die 2: The Games", in which players will have to save the characters from dying from training injuries. The new version comes out in November.

- They also released short teasers of the character at the gym with real people and dying.

- http://www.brandrepublic.com/article/1280886/dumb-ways-die-enjoys-bloody-valentine

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Monday, 9 March 2015- Also released a Valentine’s day

version

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- https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/campaigns/dumb-ways-to-die.html

- THE STORY behind: Accident rates on the Melbourne Metro were rising, largely due to an increase in risky behaviour around trains. But a rail safety message was the last thing our audience wanted to hear and traditional public safety messages just don't work on young people: tell them to do one thing and they'll do the opposite.

- So we had to turn a message that people needed to hear into a message that people wanted to hear. The way we did it was to embed our message into awesomely entertaining content.

- From day one, everything about this campaign was designed to be inherently spreadable via social technologies.

-Videos on Youtube.

-21 animated GIFs on Tumblr.

-links on the description box: to purchase the song on iTunes, download it for free via Soundcloud, visit our website and get free GIFs off our Tumblr site.

Results:- Schools worldwide adopted the campaign material for classroom use.

- Nearly 100 cover versions of the video on YouTube. and it’s still spreading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vqAa95EplE -Parody dumb ways to die in a film.

- 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.

- http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1187124/dumb-ways-die-story-behind-global-marketing-phenomenon

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Monday, 9 March 2015- http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1229233/

-- http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1187124/dumb-ways-die-story-behind-

global-marketing-phenomenon

- Marketing spoke to Chloe Alsop, marketing manager at Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia, about the runaway success of its "dumb ways to die" viral campaign:

- The music track was popular, too, charting on iTunes in 28 countries.

- Metro Trains claims it has achieved its rail safety aims, too: over 44,000 Melbournians 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.

- DWTD won the Grand Prix in the PR, direct marketing and radio categories at the Cannes Lions.

- What was the original thinking behind the campaign?

- "Metro didn't have a safety campaign in market. We had safety information and instruction at stations, but nothing to influence safe behaviour or show we care about the safety of our customers. We also needed to listen to our front line employees who dealt with unsafe behaviours on going.

- "When we – myself and the agency team [McCann Melbourne] – started speaking to them and looking at imagery and reports from the safety team, we kept coming back to the same thing: it’s really hard to get hit by a train. A wrong or careless behaviour is required.

- Why did you select this creative approach?

- "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 .

- "So we started from there - how do we, without offending or blaming, tell people to stop doing dumb things around trains? And target primarily youth. How do we get young kids to think about train safety, which even I can admit is a pretty boring topic?

- "‘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.”

- Why has it proved so popular?

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Monday, 9 March 2015- "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.

- What do you think it says about consumers today?

- "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."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumb_Ways_to_Die

Basics:Dumb Ways to Die is a public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to promote rail safety.

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

The campaign was created by advertising agency McCann Melbourne.

Appeared in newspapers, local radio, outdoor advertising, throughout the Metro Trains network and on Tumblr.

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.”

According to Metro Trains, the campaign contributed to a more than 30% reduction in "near-miss" accidents, from 13.29 near-misses per million kilometres in November 2011 – January 2012, to 9.17 near-misses per million kilometres in November 2012 – January 2013.

Video

-The video was developed by Pat Baron, animated by Julian Frost, and produced by Cinnamon Darvall.

-It was released on youtube 14th November 2012

-It featured "twenty-one characters killing themselves in increasingly stupid ways”

culminating in the last three characters being killed by trains due to unsafe behaviour.

-It was viewed 2.5 million times within 48 hours and 4.7 million times within 72 hours.

-McCann released an "Official Karaoke Edition" of the video on 26 November 2012.

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.

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Monday, 9 March 2015-It was performed by Emily Lubitz, the lead vocalist of Tinpan Orange, with McGill providing backing vocals.(Refered to as Tangerine Kitty)

-It was released on iTunes.

Game

-May 2013, Metro released a "Dumb Ways to Die" game for iOS devices.Android version was released in September.

-Developed by Julian Frost and Samuel Baird,invites players to avoid the dangerous activities engaged in by the various characters featured throughout the campaign.

-Players can also pledge to “not do dumb stuff around trains.”

-The aim of the game is to earn as much points as possible by avoiding "dying" in one of the activities. Lives can be lost by "dying" in one of the activities. The game ends by losing all of the lives.

-A sequel was made in November 2014. It contains more challenges which differ from building to building, each with its own theme.

-Before a train arrives at a building, the player plays a challenge to counter something related to trains.

-There are 8 challenges each in every building. The winning and losing aspect, remains the same a the original game.

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