In their own words, “The LADbible Group is redefining entertainment and breaking news for a social generation. Our global community engages with our content–spanning editorial, video, documentary and live – billions of times each and every month. Using all major platforms, we’ve rapidly risen to become one of the web’s most prominent social video publishers”.
Think! Road Safety in the UK is one of the world’s most well known road safety campaign agencies, working on a range of road safety topics in the UK. The two organizations have teamed up to present #MatesMatter, a social campaign that places a funny lens over designated-driving and a somewhat subtle anti-drink driving message aimed at young males.
The LadBible explains their mission. Whether by simply putting a smile on someone’s face with a funny video or by engaging our audience in social issues important to them, the LadBible strives to make a positive difference. They are at the forefront of reporting on the world’s latest news, telling authentic shareable stories in real-time, with our original features documenting uniqueness in culture and society.
This has recently been illustrated in their collaboration with Think! Road Safety to publish a series of videos on social media called #MatesMatter. The premise is quite simple, a bunch of lads on a night out, playing pool, drinking beers and doing what many British lads do on a weekend. The difference is, one ‘lad’ is not drinking and everytime he decides to have a drink, his friends don’t allow it. By either knocking his drink over, or simple replacing it with a soft drink.
The hashtag #MatesMatter was trending over the holiday period where mates often get together for a catch up and maybe a few pints of beer (that’s just over half a litre for the rest of the world). It’s a common fact in the Western World that young males often socialize around alcohol culture. According to the statistics, young males are more likely to be involved in fatal crashes than their female counterparts and so this campaign, promoting responsible drinking alongside road safety is a welcome reminder.
Another video shows a group of lads taking their taxi driver on a night out to ensure they can get home safely. While it’s unlikely a taxi driver would give up the night’s takings for a night out, the taxi man (who happens to be Michael Dapaah a.k.a Big Shaq of Man’s Not Hot fame) drinks non-alcoholic drinks all night because its ‘just right’.
In another video, Think! attaches its road safety messaging to young male’s passion for football. The excitement around transfer deadline day is embedded with a range of road safety messaging to offer a subtle culture insertion of safety.
We love this type of marketing. This approach takes road safety from a creative and non-preachy type of way. Youth don’t want to be told what to do, neither do they need to be scared into it. With a bit of humour, a happy emotional response and attaching messaging to their reality, we think these types of approaches will resonate with youth more. The evaluation and impact remains to be seen.