VW and Ogilvy South Africa launched a night-driving school to reduce accidents after dark

Instead of just talking about road safety, Ogilvy South Africa has worked with Volkswagen to take concrete steps to improve it—launching VW Night School to teach drivers how to drive at night, when most accidents in the South Africa occur. Ogilvy and VW worked with the South African government on the program, which also involved VW’s Advanced Driving Academy (a unit of VW South Africa that offers advanced driving courses including performance driving, safety and Amarok off-road driving). Night School, which features both on-track and online courses, is the country’s first night-driving safety curriculum. It launched just before the holidays and taught drivers—77% of whom were non-VW drivers—how to deal with specific nighttime driving issues. Also read: Volkswagen print ads illustrate an alarming accident statistic “Safety is always a focus for us, especially on the South African roads, which are amongst the deadliest in the world,” Bridget Harpur, head of marketing for VW South Africa, told Ad Age. “While our cars are fitted with state-of-the-art safety technology with our IQ.DRIVE safety system, we realized that in order to make a significant impact on this issue and save lives, we needed to think beyond the safety of those driving a Volkswagen, and create a solution that could help every road user reach their destination safely, regardless of their mode of transport.” The biggest challenge, Harpur said, was ensuring the curriculum was “researched, tested and fit to be adapted to the government’s national driving curriculum. It then need to be presented in a way that made it easy for audiences digest. It took considerable planning and precision driving at night to create the material. We then turned our website into an e-learning platform.” VW worked with media agency PHD to advertise the program, implementing tactical ad placements at specific times of the day and night, as well as in areas with high accident rates. Influencers and YouTubers also took the course and mobilized their followers to do the same. “Years in the making, Night School was a true collaboration between government, agency and private enterprises—one we’re extremely proud of,” Harpur said. “Road safety is a global issue and one that won’t be fixed overnight, but we’re on the right track and have partners who all have the same goal in mind.” More Creativity coverage from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

VW and Ogilvy South Africa launched a night-driving school to reduce accidents after dark

Featured Stories