Vision Zero Austin shows the harshest realities of speeding to reduce traffic deaths

An Austin, Texas, resident dies in a car crash approximately every five days. The city has set out to improve that figure by implementing its own Vision Zero program and launching a new public safety push that focuses on speeding’s worst-case scenarios to encourage residents to slow down—and potentially save lives. Created by multicultural agency Sensis, which has offices in both the U.S. and Mexico, the Austin Department of Transportation’s new “Speeding Changes Everything” campaign won bronze for Print/Out-of-Home Campaign of the Year among advocacy organizations in the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards 2023. One challenge facing Sensis in its development of the campaign is that vehicle size, which has been shown to be a major factor in traffic deaths, can’t be readily changed, particularly in Texas. (The Lone Star State leads the nation in pickup truck sales volume as of 2023, per iSeeCars data.) See all of the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards winners here Additionally, the agency, which sought to create marketing materials in both English and Spanish, had to grapple with a relatively modest media budget of approximately $50,000. But Sensis made the most of it, strategically deploying a combination of billboards for eight weeks and bus ads for two throughout the Texas capital that emphasized the dangers of speeding rather than of oversized vehicles, which the agency says garnered more than 15 million combined impressions. The out-of-home placements were further complemented by rush-hour radio spots and geo-targeted social media ads to maximize exposure for “Speeding Changes Everything” while keeping media costs low. See all of the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards winners here

Vision Zero Austin shows the harshest realities of speeding to reduce traffic deaths

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