Re:act Road Safety student campaign launches in Brisbane with oOh!media

An attention-grabbing and thought provoking road safety campaign, created by Queensland University of Technology students as part of the Re:act behaviour change program, is appearing across digital billboards and displays in cafés, venues, retail centres, and universities with oOh!media.

The Re:act Brisbane campaign was launched today [NOTE: 17 AUGUST] by Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey. Locally developed Re:act campaigns are also expected to be launched in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as in regional locations as part of August being Rural Road Safety Month, in coming weeks.

In an unprecedented event, Re:act media partner oOh!media is launching Re:act campaigns, which target the common road safety risk of distraction, and in particular vulnerable road users, across more than 850 sites through a partnership that exceeds $650 000 in value, in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The Re:act road safety campaigns have been created by advertising students at Queensland University of Technology and communication design students at Swinburne University in Melbourne and University of Technology Sydney.

The prominent campaign executions are the result of a partnership between out of home advertising company oOh!media and Re:act, a road safety initiative of creative behaviour change agency Hard Edge.

“Hard Edge has worked with the students to refine and bring their campaigns to life, and oOh!media worked directly with students to prepare their campaigns for digital distribution,” Hard Edge Managing Director Andrew Hardwick said.

“The thinking, approach, and creativity of young people is fresh and insightful. They have an incredible contribution to make and their voices should be heard. They are the future on our roads and, unfortunately, overrepresented in many road safety statistics.

“oOh!media has been a fantastic partner and contributor to the Re:act program and their team continues to enthusiastically support the program and its objective of making our roads safer for all users.”

Noel Cook, oOh!media’s Chief Commercial & Operations Officer, said the company was proud to be supporting such an important campaign, as well as the students themselves.

“Road safety initiatives like these save lives, and we are utilising a wide range of valuable assets to take these messages to the public and spread the word to young drivers,” he said. “The students have displayed outstanding creativity in coming up with their campaigns, and our team has enjoyed working with them to develop their ideas and see them realised across prominent digital billboards and screens.

“This initiative and our ongoing support for Re:act is part of the our broader approach to road safety, working in conjunction with the Outdoor Media Association to invest in research and make Australian roads safer.”

Andrew Hardwick says the vision for Re:act is to bring young people together with government and industry to give them a real-world experience but also activate their road safety campaigns in public to change the behaviour of road users. The oOh!media partnership is enabling this vision to become a reality.

Hard Edge continues to grow the Re:act program and this is another step towards the national model of Re:act, where one selected student campaign will run nationally across Australia.

Students behind the selected campaigns in each city have also developed an online and social media presence to support the outdoor campaigns. To find out more about the Brisbane campaign, visit the ‘Where’s your sense?’ Facebook page.

Visit reactforchange.com to learn more about the Re:act program.

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For further information:

Andrew Hardwick
CEO – Hard Edge & Re:act
M +61 (0)417 334 399
ahardwick@hardedge.com.au

An initiative of Hard Edge, the annual Re:act program challenges university students to create a behaviour change campaign that raises awareness among 18-25 year old road users of a critical road safety issue where they are overrepresented. A panel of university, road safety and industry partners selects the most compelling road safety campaign in each state, which is then developed and launched on university campuses and oOh!media’s digital assets, including its landmark billboards. Now in its fifth year, Re:act ran in 2020 in Melbourne with Swinburne, UTS in Sydney and, for the first time, Brisbane, through QUT. The program also expanded internationally this year into London, at University of the Arts London. Further national and international expansion is planned for 2021.