Government of Canada
Don't Drive High

The Goal

In light of the future legalization of cannabis, Public Safety Canada wanted to raise awareness among youth of the dangers of drug-impaired driving. The challenge? Change perceptions that weed is risk-free and even makes you a better driver.

The Target

Young Canadians from 13 to 24 years.

Insights and Strategy

To incite a shift in behaviour, it was essential to understand that the target’s experience with weed is highly social. In fact, 90% of youth see peers consuming drugs online and 75% will mimic these behaviours. Cannabis culture is characterized by long-established myths that have perpetuated risk-taking behaviours fueled by peers and social networks. By understanding the target’s social ecosystem and their drug decision-making journey, the brand built a connection strategy around marijuana media moments, reaching youth in their social networks both on and offline.

The Plan

The agency’s touchpoints targeted youth in moments and contexts where they contemplate drugs, consume drugs and become at-risk for impaired driving, such as bars, campuses, New Year’s Eve, holidays, birthdays, weekends and more. With creative and surprising media executions in each channel, the team broke through the clutter and engaged youth in a meaningful way. To combat myths via demonstration, the team challenged youth to a test drive through an interactive mobile game that proved first-hand how drugs impair driving reflexes and reaction time. It promoted the game with mobile ads targeting over 35,000 points of interest, including high-schools, colleges and universities as well as late-night fast-food locations.

To resonate with youth on an emotional level, the agency synced cinema ads with the motion effects of D-BOX seats to simulate a car accident. This impactful moment jolted viewers and forced them to take notice of the dangers of driving high. Knowing that Canadian moviegoers over-index for the 13 to 24 years age demographic, this tactic allowed the brand to reach its core target audience in a captive and immersive brand environment. The DBOX execution ran during movies preferred by the target in over 400 cinema screens in specific markets where drug-impaired driving was on the rise (according to StatsCan data).

To educate the audience on a personal level, the brand launched a chatbot integrated into Facebook Messenger, the preferred method of communication for 80% of teens. This marked a first in the history of the Government of Canada! The chatbot busted myths through an interactive quiz and could even connect youth with a safe ride home during the holidays, when they are at greater risk to drive impaired. By connecting the chatbot with targeted Facebook ads, this media touchpoint could reach the brand’s audience at scale and spark a conversation during key marijuana media moments aligned with their drug consideration journey, such as holidays, New Year’s and nighttime. The team even reached potential partiers by targeting ads to youth with upcoming birthdays and close friends of youth with upcoming birthdays.

The Results

Following the campaign, recall on this important issue increased from 31% to 49%. Over 50,000 users interacted with the chatbot through which 17,000 youth searched for a safe ride home. Canadians loved the chatbot, with over 98% positive mentions on Facebook. Around 63% of the target completed the quiz with an average time spent exceeding two minutes. The brand’s mobile test-drive game was played over 10,000 times, indicating a 76% completion rate, 36% repeat players and showing that the average time spent surpassed industry benchmarks by 74%. The DBOX cinema ads aired over 48,000 times and reached an audience of 2.5 million moviegoers.