IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

The Challenge:
The Iowa Department of Transportation was looking for a safe driving campaign with a brand identity that would inspire people - one they could believe in. They felt prior campaigns had unrealistic goals or calls to action that didn’t resonate with the people of Iowa.

Our Solution:
Through extensive focus groups, we developed a simple but powerful brand: What Drives You. The goal was to remind the audience that to protect what matters to us, we must start with our own actions on the road. Not only did the focus groups play a vital role in helping to inspire this direction and wording but also in fine-tuning the look and tone desired: Relatable, Empowering, Nature, Heartfelt, Midwest.

Our Execution:
The team developed a warm, welcoming brand identity, with everything from the logo to the color palette carefully thought out. We also directed the client in creating a website that reflected not just the right fonts, colors and style, but also in explaining why safe driving matters, why the audience should care and what they can do to make a difference. Having a “home” for the campaign has been an important part of the audience’s journey with these messages.

Once the branding was established, we went to work developing the campaign to launch it. We filmed several scenes showing people and animals waiting for their loved ones: a young child waiting to be picked up from daycare, a grandfather waiting for his grandson, two dogs waiting for their human to return. All were shot with Tokina Vista Prime Cinema Lenses on RED Digital Cinema cameras, with very intentional casting and set design to ensure a cinematic, beautiful look. These scenes were cut together to make a 30-second spot, but also stand alone as individual 15-second spots that could be used to target specific audiences. We utilized custom music and a very sparse v/o to create emotion without feeling overpowering.

Still photos were captured at the shoot as well and used for banner ads, social media and the website. For the radio ad, where we couldn’t rely on beautiful images, we produced a powerful story about a mom who has a “close call” on the way to pick up her child. The idea here was to show the other side of the story, the videos showed the people waiting, but why were they waiting? What could have gone wrong?

In doing this, we took care to consider the platforms and how we could illustrate the importance of safe driving in different, powerful ways.