Mistakes.

- Waka Kotahi | NZ Transport Agency -

Finally, an anti-speeding message that speeders could agree with

Speeding is the #1 road safety problem. But speeders don’t buy they’re the issue. Because they believe they’re skilled enough to drive over the speed limit, and it’s everyone else who’s the problem.

Instead of resisting that belief, a campaign was launched that supported it. By showing that other people – real people – make mistakes. And when that inevitably happens, our speed is the one variable we can control to determine the outcome.

Mistakes agreed with an audience we had blamed for almost 20 years – changing the discourse around speeding, and reframing this undesirable behaviour. It had an unprecedented effect. Within a fortnight of its release it had been shared around the globe and gained over 14,000,000 views. Other countries asked to use it.

More importantly, it created a new conversation about speed amongst people who had stopped listening. While entrenched behaviour takes time to change, Mistakes quickly began to influence behaviour on the road, with mean speeds falling to the lowest levels in 20 years in the two years following the launch of the campaign.