Road Safety Campaign Handbook
Road Safety Campaign Handbook
Handbook
How to develop and implement successful campaigns
and information activities
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Content
• Background knowledge
• The objective
• The message
• The budget
• Fundraising
• Implementation
• Evaluation
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How to develop road safety campaigns
Communication
Road designs for instance are changes of the physical environment. It automatically affects the
speed of the drivers if reducing speed is your target (speed ramps and roundabouts), but is
does not solve the problem with drunk driving. And as we know that more than 80% of all
accidents in traffic are caused by human errors physical solutions are not sufficient. The road
users must also be convinced of their own responsibility.
Visible police is very efficient and police controls have immediate effect (like it had on the
usage of helmets in The Northern Region), whereas the threats of controls and sanctions are
not enough, if it the road users do not experience it as real.
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It is necessary to inform of new laws and regulations concerning road safety as well as
educating and informing of the risks and dangers in traffic and you also must get the road
users to know and understand The Highway Code. Campaigns and other ways of
communication can be used for that purpose. Campaigns can also give advice on the use of
helmets and seat belts and they can successfully be combined with educational material and
other information activities.
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Background knowledge
When planning and developing a campaign it is important to know the background of the
problems you experience in traffic. If the problem is that some crossroads are dangerous, it is
worth exploring the questions of who gets involved in accidents in crossroads. Is it the car
drivers, the bus drivers or the pedestrians who are responsible for risky actions? When do the
accidents happen (at night, during daytime, on week days or mostly at weekends), what age
groups are involved, how serious are the accidents in crossroads?
You must also ask yourself why those accidents happen. It could i.e. be lack of knowledge or
no acceptance of the rules and regulations, it could be a combination or something different
but it is worth finding out.
Seek knowledge in reports on accident statistics from the police, figures from hospitals and
available research documentation. If you plan a regional campaign it is also a good idea to
compare with national accident figures and other relevant knowledge. If there is no sustainable
knowledge available first look out for relevant international research and evaluations.
In Sweden it is estimated that fatigue is the cause of 10-20% of all road accidents and that
many of these accidents are single accidents. International studies point to the fact that 20-
40% of all single accidents are caused by the driver being tired.
The Swedish Väg- och Transportforskningsinstitut (VTI – The Road and Transport Research
Institute) made a questionnaire in 2003 of 3000 drivers’ perception of fatigue and driving.
The objective was to identify which subjective means the drivers use against fatigue while
driving.
The study showed that drivers are able to recognize their own signals of fatigue but they do
not always take the signals seriously. Some drivers underestimate the danger of driving
when being tired and overestimate their own ability of handling the situation.
The most common signs of fatigue stated by the interviewees were yawning, problems of
concentration and longer response time. The Swedish researchers point out that fatigue in
traffic is a topic where little knowledge has been gained. It is hard to estimate how
widespread and how accepted it is to drive when being fatigued. Furthermore more
knowledge is needed about suitable means against fatigue as well as their short- and long-
term impacts.
If international research results is all there is, you must seek additional national knowledge in
order to plan your communication on the topic. One way is preparing questionnaires to hand
out to specifically chosen road users to explore their experiences and level on knowledge on
the topic.
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Focus group interviews
The result of a survey often lead to more questions that are not easily answered in a
questionnaire carried out in the road side. Often it is also a good idea to seek knowledge by
asking a smaller group of representatives from the target group of their views and experience
with the problem. This is called focus group interviews.
An important part of the preparation of an interview is to make a question guide for the
interviews with open questions suitable for debate and discussions.
Each focus group should consist of representatives from the same target group, e.g. one for
tro-tro drivers, one for lorry drivers etc. with 6-10 people in each group. Two hours is often
sufficient for each focus group interview, all included.
Intro
Let the interviewees introduce them selves:
- work, age, years behind the steering wheel
- describe driving conditions: where they drive, how many hours, days a week, breaks from
driving
Fatigue in traffic
- experiences of being tired when driving (awareness, how, when, how often)
- how do they feel when tired – signals
- conditions of driving when tired (night, dark, long distances, little sleep etc.)
- perceptions of fatigue as a risk factor in traffic (describe and compare to other risks)
- experiences of dangerous situations in traffic caused by or partly caused by you as a
driver being tired (describe)
- experiences of accidents in traffic caused by or partly caused by you as a driver
being tired (describe)
- what should be done to avoid fatigue in traffic (by car owners, by car unions, working
conditions, road conditions, law enforcement, information, education, other…)
Needs of information
- experienced need for information/education on fatigue in traffic
- how, where, which media, to whom
Tell them who you are and for what and how their contributions will be used. It is important to
stress out that they are anonymous and that recordings on tape will be used only for
remembering the discussions when writing a report and erased afterwards.
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The interview
The aim is to let the interviewees enter a discussion on issues chosen beforehand. As
moderators/interviewer you should not take part in discussions. You are there to help the talk
get going and make sure that every topic is being talked about. You do not need to follow the
question guide strictly. It is there as a check list to ensure that you remember every aspect to
be talked about.
If a relevant discussion/debate rises without you asking questions let it happen. The advantage
of focus group interviews is that you can gain from the interviewees having a discussion
because the discussion itself can add more and new aspects to the issue you bring into the
discussion.
You should also try to ensure that everybody has his time limit on every issue. If one or two
persons speak a lot you should ask the others to speak out as well.
It is best if there are two people attending each interview. Then you can support each other to
make sure that every topic is being discussed. Also two remember better than one. It is a good
idea to record the interviews on tape. It can help you afterwards when interpreting and to find
interesting sayings that can be used when presenting the conclusions.
Also in Ghana very little knowledge has been gained on fatigue in traffic. Therefore the
NRSC has conducted two studies on the topic. There are many indications that tiredness
while driving is a contributory factor to the causes of road accidents.
A questionnaire given out to 500 drivers shows that more than 75% often feel tired when
driving – some of them daily, some mostly at the end of the day. They all drive for long
hours. The interviewees had different professions – they were drivers of tro-tros, taxis,
lorries, buses, HGV´s and private cars. One out of five of them have experienced dangerous
situations in traffic because of tiredness.
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Two focus group interviews were also carried out. One of them was done with tro-tro drivers
the other with drivers of long distance buses. The findings indicate that the drivers accept
that fatigue is a big problem in Ghana, and that they have all experienced it individually.
Fatigue does not have a limit; even though you have been driving for many years fatigue it
is still there and nobody talks about it, so they don’t know how to go about it. They need
support from the NRSC and other stakeholders to deal with the problem – they want
awareness of the problem.
Fatigue in traffic is now part of the NRSC strategy for the next five years of road safety
campaigns and education activities in Ghana and therefore it will be dealt with in various
ways in the years to come.
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The objective
An objective describes what you want to achieve from the campaign, if it is awareness,
attitudes, behaviour or all three of them you want to change. You must set up objectives both
on the short and the long term, an overall objective and one for each campaign.
The objectives should be as clear and precise as possible. It helps you throughout the whole
sequence and the evaluation, if diffuse it is of no use (like i.e. “better traffic culture in the
cities” or “higher morals for drivers”). You cannot measure anything valid from that.
The objective must also be realistic, if not you easily define a failure for your campaign.
We want drivers, passengers and vehicle owners to realize that fatigue/tiredness causes
dangerous situations and accidents. We want them to know the signals of being/feeling tired
and we want to pass on to them how to cope with fatigue in traffic.
The purpose is to get the message through that the problem needs to be taken seriously in
different ways: passengers should respect the drivers need to rest, drivers must recognize
their own signals of feeling tired and take precautions and vehicle owners must improve the
working conditions for the commercial drivers so at least they can achieve the hours of rest
that the traffic law commands.
Since the main target group is tro-tro and bus drivers they are also the ones we set
objectives for.
Awareness:
70 % of the target group have noticed the campaign
50 % of the target group remember the generel message
10 % of the target group remember at least 2 speciffic messages
25 % of the target group have talked to others about the campaign
Knowledge:
50 % know what to do to reduce risk of accidents due to fatigue driving.
Attitude:
50 % regard fatigue driving as one of the third most important issues in order to reduce
accidents among the commercial drivers
25 % are positive to regulations to reduce fatigue driving
25 % are positive to more control of fatigue driving
Behavior:
20 % of the target group claim to take more breaks while driving after the campaign.
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The target group
Delimitation is the key word when defining and finding the target group for the campaign. If
you try to affect everybody you risk not affecting anybody, as you address parents of small
children differently of how to walk in traffic compared to how you address young men who just
learned to drive.
As a starting point use the background knowledge and the objectives set and then ask: What
do we already know and what do we need to find out? It is important to know the accident
patterns of the target group and the development of these accidents, their behaviour in traffic
and what others have done.
It can be valuable to look up representatives from the target group and ask them why they
over speed (if that is the issue) and what they think it takes to make them change behaviour.
Focus group interview is a way of finding out. There is no need for a scientific approach but it
is a good idea to be well prepared. You can also investigate on who can have an impact on the
target group (wives and passengers on tro-tro drivers and bus drivers) and use them as a part
of the campaign to reach the target group.
Many areas are important to gain information and knowledge on concerning a specific target
group. For instance which road user type, gender, age, job, education, attitudes, behaviour,
use of media, special interests and so on. The better you delimit the target group the better
you target the message.
The target group for the fatigue campaign is first of all commercial drivers. It is
relevant to address all commercial drivers since they all experience fatigue when
driving, but this first campaign will have a specific focus on tro-tro and bus drivers.
They all carry many passengers and therefore they are of special interest since many
passengers get killed in traffic in Ghana.
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The message
The message of the campaign must be simple and clear and in one single sentence. The
message is the shortest possible expression for what you want to tell about the problem it is
not enough to say: “it has something to do with…..” There should be only one overall sentence,
if necessary split up in three side messages that have to be closely related to the main
message.
Consider all parts of the campaign according to the message. It makes it easier to target and
chose media, activities and other means of information. The message should give concrete
directions to what we want the road user to do, simple and clear and specifically aimed at the
target group. It is a good idea to spend time finding the right message; it helps a lot when
planning the rest of the campaign.
• “You risk getting involved in a road accident if you drive when you are feeling
tired”
• “You can avoid dangerous situations and accidents in traffic if you take
precautions against fatigue”
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The campaign strategy
The strategy tells you something about how we achieve the objectives. Is it to be a one-way
communication, do you want a dialogue with the target group or a combination of both? The
strategy is also about choice of media. Which are obvious to use concerning the target group,
which media do they easy access to. A strategy can also contain a plan for how to combine
mass communication with other methods like network, educational materials, information
activities, police control etc.
The closer you get to the recipients the bigger is the impact of your communication. Therefore
you need a strategy of how to involve local stakeholders. Possibly they can assist in delivering
the message of the campaign and handing out campaign materials (NGO’s, driving instructors,
DVLA, the police etc.)
The campaign style is also part of the strategy. Consider it in order to reach the target group;
should they be informed, convinced, scared, warned, threatened or persuaded?
To get the highest possible impact, the idea will be to launch the campaign intensely in
specific chosen road corridors where billboards are put up and where the police or other
stakeholders hand out stickers. These are first of all the major highways. The achieved
awareness can thereby also be measured more easily, and concrete objectives for
awareness and understanding of the message can be set for these corridors.
To reach more people -passengers, relatives, bus owners etc. - a TV documentary and radio
commercials in local languages will be aired intensely. .
Stickers will be an essential campaign element. After the campaign has been implemented
every tro-tro and bus driver should have a sticker placed in his vehicle either on the
dashboard or the windscreen to keep the campaign message close to the drivers sight.
The style of the campaign will be confronting and informative, with spotlight on the
magnitude and complexity of the problems with fatigue in traffic (the documentary) and
information about what the drivers can do themselves and other possible actions to take to
combat the problems and risks of fatigue driving (posters, bill boards, stickers, radio
commercial, Tv documentary and local outreach programmes).
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A Toolbox for local activities to support national campaigns
Local activities can be very useful for getting in direct contact with the target group of the
campaign. You meet them directly, you talk to them and there is a possibility of having a
dialogue. In that way local activities are very good supplements to national media campaigns.
A national campaign can raise awareness on a specific topic aimed at a certain target group,
but meeting the target group directly adds value to the campaign. Here are some ways of
getting in touch locally and regionally with different target groups.
Local activities:
Local media
It is a good idea always to consider which local media to use or try to get in touch with when
launching a national campaign. National campaigns address national Medias, but campaigns
should also be implemented through regional and local media. They are for instance:
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Ways of communicating directly with target groups
Apart from special local activities and local media there are also local associations and other
kinds of local gatherings that could be used for getting in contact with the target group of a
national campaign, either directly or through a secondary target group who can have influence
on the target group.
Local
stakeholders
Local stakeholders
should always be
invited to take
part in the
launching and
implementation of
national
campaigns at the
regional and local
level. They can
help delivering the
message, hand
out materials, hold
meetings and
bring valuable
attention to the
Fatigue campaign volunteers from Volta Region
campaign.
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The role of the police
Coordinating a campaign with the police can add value and attention to a national campaign.
They can help by controlling the road users whether it by speeding, drunk driving or other
matters concerning a specific campaign. If the objective of a campaign is somehow difficult to
control – like fatigue in traffic – the police can cooperate in different ways.
• Enforcement
• Regular interaction with drivers at specific intervals on highways
• Check drivers at vantage points
• Check log books at loading points
• Education
• Assist with handing out campaign materials
• Assist with delivering the message of the campaign directly at the road side
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The budget
Draw up a budget for your campaign. Often resources are small both economically and man
power wise, and then it is even more important to be realistic when planning a campaign.
Think untraditionally, if there is no money for big bill boards or TV-spots then do something
less expensive like handing out the message in specific local places (markets, churches etc.)
and plan local activities that create attention.
Get estimates on larger productions so you can compare prices and remember to set aside
money for distribution and implementation. Also remember the press when setting up a
budget. They might not be part of the media advertising or planned activities, but it is
important to calculate them in. And do not forget the evaluation of the campaign. Many
campaigns are not evaluated because the whole budget was spent on campaign materials and
activities. You should set aside 10% of a budget for evaluation.
When you know which campaign elements to produce – like for the fatigue
campaign – it should have the following content:
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Fundraising
Until now road safety campaigns in Ghana have mainly been financed by public authorities or
public donors like Ghana Road Fund, Danida and The World Bank. In the long run it is not
sustainable, and therefore it is necessary to build up new relations with commercial potential
sponsors. Before addressing a potential sponsor, it is important to consider several issues
concerning the company you want to enter into a deal with.
Exposure of sponsors
For a commercial sponsor the amount of people who see or experience the campaign or event
they sponsor is essential. For them it is important to know that their company’s name or logo
is being exposed. It can be at certain events or outreach programmes and also through the
electronic or printed media (TV, radio, newspapers, posters, billboards and so on).
Image
When a company chooses to sponsor an event, a campaign or maybe even an organization in
general, they also want the sponsorship to have a positive effect upon their image. Maybe they
realize that the sponsorship in itself does not affect their immediate sales or outcome, but the
affect it will have on their image is worth sponsoring for. Therefore it is important to be able to
explain to a potential sponsor what’s in it for them.
Relevance
A company will also be interested in the relevance of the sponsorship compared to their
products or activities. The effect of the sponsorship will rise equally with the relevance of it.
For instance it is easier for a company that sells spare parts for cars to find it relevant to
support a road safety campaign than a washing powder company.
Social Responsibility
In order to show social responsibility some companies choose to support humanitarian
organisations or others for whom profit is not the objective. It is also called cause related
marketing. Typically a company that supports an organisation chooses to give a contribution
for every sold unit. Concerning road safety it could be insurance company supporting the NRSC
with a certain amount for every new car insurance they sell. In return the company will expect
to be permitted using the NRSC logo in their marketing, not because they expect to make a
profit out of it but to improve their corporate image internally and externally.
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2. Define the
support
needed
1. Have a 3. Look up
clear sponsors and
objective for seek an
your exceptional
campaign match
Valuable
Sponsorship
4. Consider
5. Cooperate best publicity
with sponsors opportunity
Valuable sponsorship
Before looking for potential sponsors you must have a clear objective for your campaign or
event (1) Describe the problem and the background data, the objectives set and what
messages you want to give to a clearly defined target group. Sponsors also appreciate to be
informed on the communication strategy, the more clearly the better. The information needed
also includes a budget showing how much support you need from sponsors on top of what has
already been financed (2). Preferably the commercial sponsor is supporting only parts of the
budget.
Before contacting potential sponsors consider what’s in it for them (3). Potential sponsors of
road safety activities will consider the support as a way of showing social responsibility, but
also it is important for commercial sponsors to see a match between their products or services.
There should not be too many different sponsors for one single event or campaign. It blurs the
value for the sponsor if there are too many of them competing for publicity.
Even though the objective might be social responsibility the sponsor often also wants as much
publicity as possible (4). The sponsor should never be more evident than the sender (NRSC),
but you must make sure, that they get value for their support. It can be by placing their logo
on campaign materials but it might also be possible to use and show the product of the
sponsor. For instance if Nestlé or Coca-Cola will sponsor a fatigue driver campaign in Ghana,
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they could set up small kiosks along some of the road sides selling refreshments for reduced
prices in order to make the drivers stop and break the drive and rest.
Cooperate with the sponsors when planning your campaigns and events. They should not have
influence on the professional road safety issues, but they can contribute when it comes to
media and publicity planning (5). In that way they will also feel involved and that always is
fruitful for the cooperation. It might even result in a more long-term involvement in stead of a
stand-alone sponsorship.
There should not be too many companies sponsoring one campaign or event as it will not
give the single sponsor enough attention. On the other hand it is necessary to address more
than one as it takes time to find and agree with sponsors on conditions and funding.
For the fatigue campaign there are a couple of sponsors that could be connected with the
message and the purpose of the campaign. The campaign poster advice drivers to have a
cup of coffee while breaking the drive.
Nestlé is therefore an obvious company with a huge market in Ghana to address since they
produce Nescafe.
Coca-Cola or Pepsi could also be obvious sponsors if you think of breaking the drive
having refreshment. Cola contains of some caffeine which is a stimulant that helps you
when feeling tired (like coffee). Therefore they could play an active role in the campaign
handling out cola at special occasions and places during the campaign period. The same
goes for coffee producers.
Shell, Total or other petrol companies are obvious to relate to any road safety campaign
and Shell is especially known for their concern about road safety. They sponsor several
campaigns and have road safety policies for their employees.
The insurance industry has already funded some materials for NRSC and they have an
obvious interest in helping reducing accidents on the roads as it will also safe them paying
for some damages. Maybe they should be asked to be a sponsor for the NRSC activities in
general and maybe it is time to make agreements with single insurance companies. There is
already cooperation with Donewell Insurance Company on the “Best driver award” –
implemented on Donewells initiative. They could be asked to sponsor the fatigue campaign
or another competitive insurance company could be asked to sponsor the campaign. The
consideration here is not to bee too involved with one single insurance company.
Auto Parts Limited is another possible sponsor for the driver fatigue campaign (and also
other campaigns). It is well known that dealers of spare parts make a lot of money in Ghana
and it would help their reputation if they put some of the profit into supporting road safety.
Toyota has already been sponsoring road safety events. They might be interested in
funding a campaign also, but also many other car companies can be addressed.
Then there are companies that transport many goods as a part of their business: Maersk
and DHL for instance. Maersk could be addressed and told that Danida sponsors part of the
campaign and in that way they can support a partly Danish funded campaign.
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A suggestion could be that preferably 50.000 $ are funded by commercial sponsors – not
necessarily from one single sponsor. Sponsors like to know that the money is already there
for large parts of the budget and that their contribution will make it possible to come out to
more people with the message.
Television is a great media to use for sponsors. Their logo will be seen by much more
people than if placed on a billboard. Therefore it should be considered to offer sponsors to
have their logo as a part of the payoff on TV-commercial or documentary.
Also on the poster the sponsor can be offered to have their logo
The Billboards should not have commercial logos on them. It is free of rental to put up
billboards if there are no commercial logos – if there are it costs extra.
Of course the sponsors should also be offered to be mentioned when having press activities
and other events concerning the campaign.
The sticker is quite small and it will probably disturb the readability of it to have sponsors
logos printed on them, so try to keep them out of the sponsorship.
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The elements of the campaign
Which media are best suitable? You should ask yourself that question both concerning the
target group, the message and the budget. What could be good supplements to these media is
it posters, leaflets, bill boards, stickers or something completely different?
A local campaign is not a smaller version of a national campaign. It is much too expensive to
produce your own TV-spots, but some media are well suited to be produced locally like radio
spots. There are other very good opportunities in the regions because there you are much
closer to the target group than at the head office; talks, events and happenings, putting
leaflets directly on cars, visit schools, workplaces and markets. Overall it is a good idea to
involve your local network like the members of road safety clubs at schools. They can help
delivering the message of the campaign.
Remember the press and give them as much information as possible to create understanding
of the problem. Think of the press as part of the elements of the campaign.
Sticker
A sticker with the slogan will be prepared, and there must be enough for every tro-tro and
bus in the country. The stickers should also be handed out to drivers who drive through the
specially chosen areas with the billboards. They are to be handed out and placed on the
dash board or wind screen.
TV Documentary
A TV documentary will be prepared to be broadcasted on national TV and at meetings and
outreach programs with commercial drivers and other relevant stakeholders.
The documentary will last between 7 and 14 minutes and deal with fatigue as a problem in
traffic and its possible consequences. The documentary will be based on the experiences of
commercial drivers.
Radio Spot
A radio-spot will also be produced to be aired at various radio channels and in different local
languages.
Billboard
A limited number of billboards will be placed at the road side on identified accident-
prone sections. The billboards can be placed before entering a village on the highway
or before a site where you can stop and rest. The regional coordinators will help
defining the right places for the billboards and for handing out stickers.
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Poster
Posters will be put up at trotro stations and
rest places along the roads where drivers
and passengers stop at times – and for the
coordinators to hang up when having
meetings with relevant stakeholders.
Local activities
• Stickers handed out to tro-tro and
bus drivers by the police and other
stakeholders
• Commercials aired at local FM radio
stations
• Posters put up at trotro stations
and other relevant places
• Outreach programs in churches,
mosques, drivers wives
associations, lorry stations with
debate and documentary shown
• Testimonies from local accident
victims arranged to come for
meetings at trotro stations
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The campaign design
The creative concept must have a certain style and tone. There are many possibilities, but it is
important to be conscious and consequent. It is of no use producing a poster with a humorous
message and a leaflet that solely signalises raised fingers. It will seem incoherent and
unreliable.
You can plan the campaign design to signalize certain ways of appealing to the target group by
choosing your way of communication consciously. The old Greek philosopher Aristotle defined
three different forms of appealing for attention:
• Logos – you use logos when you want to pursue logical arguments and documentation.
By doing that you appeal to people’s common sense and rational position.
• Ethos – is about the feelings that the recipient (the target group) has towards the
sender (the organisation, the company). One could also say that it has to do with the
image of the organisation (NRSC). The more ethos the organisation has the higher is
their credibility among the recipients
• Pathos - you use pathos when you want to activate the recipients’ emotional
engagement. You do it by drawing the attention to dramatically issues for instance by
using powerful photos and moving background music.
It is a good idea to buy professional help from consultants, graphic designers, journalists or
photographers. If you use them brief them carefully about the campaign and their task. Teach
them to think road safety and be aware of what you want from them before you contact them.
If you write a project description for yourself and to hand out to stakeholders, you can use that
a script to write a briefing note for the advertising company and other consultants working for
you.
It is you as a road safety expert who sets the criteria for a campaign or a road safety activity,
not the creative consultants.
It can also be helpful to pre-test the campaign idea and material before you produce it. If you
want to pre-test the campaign strategy and elements you need to do it with a section of the
target group. A focus group interview is one way of testing the ideas and materials. (See the
part on focus groups above).
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Implementation
A time schedule is needed up until the production of materials (TV, radio, posters etc.) but also
for the launching of the campaign, the ending and the evaluation. It is good to have a plan for
the implementation of the campaign; what is going to happen in which order, who is
responsible for what and who needs to know what.
In February 2007 the campaign was already in progress and the time schedule
was like this:
Time Schedule for developing and implementing the fatigue driver campaign
The background knowledge of the problems with fatigue in traffic has already been
gathered through surveys and focus group interviews and relevant information has also
been identified from other countries. There is now a strategy for the first information
campaign on fatigue and an agency has been briefed and has presented a creative concept
for the campaign. On top of that regional stakeholders (the coordinators) have been
informed and involved and have come up with ideas to local activities to support the
national campaign. The following time schedule is for the rest of the process.
February:
• Testing of campaign elements on members from the target group
• Create a budget for the entire campaign
• Revise the concept for the campaign according to the results from the pre-tests
• Define potential sponsors (their contribution and what’s in it for them)
March - May
• Seek out potential sponsors and make agreements with them
• Contact the Road Fund (Danida funding)
• Find producers for the different campaign elements (if necessary including
procurement of services)
• Make a plan and time schedule for the production of materials
June - August
• Workshop for regional coordinators to involve and inform them on the campaign
• Define and describe local activities to support the national campaign
• Production of commercial (TV and radio)
• Production of materials (printing)
• Prepare evaluation (before, during and after the launching of the campaign)
• Carry out before evaluation
• Make a press strategy and prepare press activities accordingly
• Meeting with stakeholders nationally and regionally to inform and involve
September
• Press materials and activities are prepared and produced
• Local activities are prepared
• Plan and time schedule for launching of campaign
• Launching of the campaign (1st - 30th September)
October
• Evaluation of the campaign (concerning target group, stakeholders and internal at
NRSC)
• Develop strategy for further campaigns and activities on fatigue
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Press strategy and launching of the campaign
You should have contact with the press. Plan if it is going to be a written press release or
maybe holding a press meeting. Maybe you should create stories for the press and maybe they
need help to get in contact with the target group. Agree on who states what to the press, for
instance if the campaign is a coordinated effort with the police.
If you plan to kick off the campaign with a launching, think of what you want to get out of it. If
it is attention and stories in the media it might not be enough to invite everybody from the
broadcasting media and the printed media. Usually many show up, mainly because they are
paid to be present. The problem is that it does not necessarily mean that they go back and
produce items or articles. So it takes more than a well planned launching event to engage the
majority of the media.
The fatigue campaign started with a successful launching on October 24th. The press and
the medias had been invited through Ghana News Agency and 53 media houses were
represented at the launch. There were also representatives from commercial drivers, the
drivers’ union, from the police and various other stakeholders.
All participants were given a folder with relevant facts and descriptions of the problems with
fatigue in traffic. The content of the launching covered all aspects of the issue including
various means of tackling the problems with fatigue. Especially Mr Otu who was a victim in
a fatigue accident made a great impact when he shared his accident story with the
audience.
Radio:
Out of the 53 media houses at the launch 19 were radio stations. How many of them that
mad news items is not known since it has not been recorded, but the assumption is that
radio stations usually cover launchings quite well and at some occasions interviews have
also been given on the fatigue topic to different radio stations.
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In the regions some of the coordinators have also been able to present the campaign on
local radio stations.
TV:
Only 1 TV station (TV Africa) participated in the launching, which was disappointing but
apparently due to other launchings happening at the same time elsewhere in Accra. It is not
known if the TV stations have broadcasted any news on fatigue, apart from two occasions
where May Obiri Yeboah arranged to give interviews on Breakfast TV (GTV and Metro TV).
News Papers:
Considering there was 33 print media present at the launching and only 4 of them
assumingly printed articles on the issue the conclusion must be, that it was not sufficient.
Also considering the cost of a launching (including the allowances for the media people
present) it must be reconsidered if this is the way forward in coming campaigns.
Conclusions:
The conclusion on the coverage of the press and media is that in the future it will be
advisable to address the press more directly and maybe not with a resource demanding
launch. A direct contact to specially chosen reporters and editors will probably give a better
result. Also it should be considered to have a smaller press meeting for those editors and
reporters in order to give them the opportunity to dig deeper into the campaign subject also
by asking relevant questions. That cannot be done at a launching as there are too many
different stakeholders present and a tight time table to stick to.
It is also advisable to hand out fact sheets and documentation on the campaign subject as
was done with the fatigue campaign, but there could be added some well written and
prepared stories of the consequences of fatigue. For instance there could have been a
written story of Mr. Otu´s accident story for the press to use in their papers. As for now the
only ones who benefited from his story were the ones present at the launching.
The quality of the documentary is also very high. The preparations and the briefing of the
company that produced the documentary (Channel Two Communications) was also of high
value and that has probably also influenced GTV when accepting to show the documentary
for no extra costs.
The conclusion is that there has to be some budget for broadcasting commercials or
documentaries, as the TV stations all depend on funding of their programmes. But it is
definitely a good idea to produce more documentaries than short commercials as they can
be showed as part of the TV stations social responsibility which is harder to defend when
being showed together with short commercials from private companies. Also it is possible to
broaden out the complex story of for instance fatigue in traffic in a documentary lasting 10
minutes than a 30 second commercial.
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The documentary also has a special purpose, namely to show it directly to commercial
drivers when having local outreach programmes at lorry stations. To what extent that has
been possible and carried out is yet to explore. The documentary can last for a long period
and can be used again in a follow up on the fatigue campaign.
It is always a good idea to make a folder with relevant press materials for the journalists –
both for launchings and for smaller press meetings. Media people are always busy covering
various jobs and stories every day and therefore you must convince them that your campaign
is worth writing or broadcasting about. Relevant facts and background figures are important to
hand out to the media.
Fact sheet on fatigue related to commercial drivers (for folder with material for
the media)
• A typically Ghanaian commercial driver is on the road 12-16 hours a day, up to six
days a week
• 7 out of 10 of the drivers round the year without annual leave – the exception is
those in formal operations
• The traffic law only allows a maximum of 8 hours drive a day. The law also tells you
to take a break lasting at least 30 minutes after 4 hours drive
• One out of five drivers do not have a break from driving at all and those who have
breaks do not have enough
• All commercial drivers feel tired at the end of the day. They mention lack of sleep as
a major cause to fatigue, but also heavy traffic and long working hours
• A third of the drivers report to have persistent headache associated with their work.
More than every second driver suffer from waist or backaches and 9 out of 10 take
pain killers on a regular basis
• One forth of the commercial drivers have invalid licenses, and over half of all
commercial drivers licenses are expired
• The income of the drivers who are employed by informal operators is dependant on
their daily sales, meaning that the more mileage and passengers the more he earns
– two days sales is the equivalent of a monthly pay
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• Internationally it is estimated that fatigue is the cause of up to 4 out of 10 single
traffic accidents
• Most drivers are aware of driver fatigue but they underestimate the risk of accidents
involved and overestimate their own abilities of handling risky situations
• International studies tell that driving for more than 10 hours triples the risk of
getting involved in accidents - in Ghana the risk is even higher because of the heat,
the conditions of the vehicles and the roads and the number of passengers in some
buses
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Press release
You can ease the work of the journalists by writing a short press release that tells the essential
parts of the problem behind the message of the campaign. The press release should be as
short and accurate as possible but also appealing and there should be contact information of
the one or the ones you decide is going to give interviews and further information to the
media. It is also important that these contact persons are aware about the press release and
therefore accessible by phone or for interviews when the press release is being sent.
A typically Ghanaian commercial driver is on the road 12-16 hours a day up to six days a
week. As a consequence fatigue is a major problem in his operations which is dangerous
since tiredness and sleepiness can cause accidents in road traffic.
We must give awareness to the problems of fatigue in traffic. It is a new area that until now
has not been given enough attention. We know that 8 out of 10 who die in road accidents
are pedestrians and passengers, and many of them have probably died because of a sleepy
driver causing a fatal accident. We still do not know the magnitude of the problem, but new
national surveys have shown that fatigue is a serious problem, especially among commercial
drivers. That is why the National Road Safety Commission is now launching a campaign on
fatigue in traffic says Noble Appiah, Acting Executive Director at NRSC.
International studies add that drivers are able to recognize their own signals of fatigue but
they do not always take the signals seriously. Some drivers underestimate the danger of
driving when being tired and overestimate their own ability of handling the situation.
The law also set a daily limit of 8 hours driving on the road, which most commercial drivers
exceed by many hours. Sharing the driving with another driver could be a solution to that
problem.
Yours Sincerely
Noble Appiah
Ac. Ex. Director, NRSC
For further information please contact Noble Appiah, cell phone: 0244 319313
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Anticipate reactions, positive as well as negative and pass them on to the people you expect
will answer calls from the press. It is good to have a meeting with everybody involved before
the campaign is launched. One way is to make “Questions and Answers” called Q & A´s. You
anticipate which questions the media probably will ask and prepare the contact persons for
relevant answers. Q & A´s you only hand out among a few relevant stakeholders in order to
secure synonymity in your answers.
The documentary tells that commercial drivers suffer from bad working conditions.
How can an information campaign change anything when drivers are so
overworked?
The campaign itself cannot change the working conditions for the commercial drivers, but it
can raise awareness of the topic and highlight that fatigue in traffic is a problem that needs
to be taken serious. When a survey was carried out among commercial drivers they asked
for more information and education on fatigue as well as better working conditions.
How will Ghanaians outside Accra get to know about the problems of fatigue in
traffic?
The campaign is nationwide and is being implemented in a close cooperation with NRSC´s
regional coordinators. They are responsible for passing on the message in the regions in
terms of giving out stickers to almost every tro-tro and bus driver in the country and they
will be very busy doing outreach programmes at various lorry stations
Why do you use the radio to air the message of fatigue and not so much TV?
The documentary will be broadcasted at GTV a couple of times, but the documentary is also
going to be shown at various lorry stations to raise awareness among the drivers
themselves. Since they drive 12-16 hours every day, many of them hardly have time to
watch TV. We must assure that the message is being brought to the drivers. Therefore we
also air radio spots in various local languages as we know that most commercial drivers
listen to the radio when driving.
The passengers are victims of fatigued tro-tro and bus drivers – what can they do?
The passengers can help commercial drivers by being aware of the drivers´ need to rest
and have breaks from driving. The campaign is also partly targeted at passengers as it is
important they also understand the signals of fatigue and which precautions to take.
Passengers can urge a driver to make a break if they discover that he is almost falling
asleep.
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What will NRSC do to improve the working conditions for commercial drivers?
The NRSC cannot change the working conditions for commercial drivers but the campaign
will hopefully start a debate of their working conditions and the insufficient public transport
system in Ghana. There are many stakeholders that have to cooperate to solve the
problems of fatigue in traffic. The GPRTU is one important stakeholder; the Ghana Private
Vehicle Owners Association also plays an important role.
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Evaluation
Evaluation is extremely important. Many miss out on it, but they shouldn’t as an evaluation
can give many answers and help you look forward. It is important to know if the target group
paid attention to the campaign, if the message came through and what they think. Did the
target group change their attitude towards the problem?
You also want to find out if the target group changed behaviour and how their behaviour was
before, during and after the campaign. You should ask yourself if you reached the objectives
but also if the cooperation with the involved partners was good. The evaluation can help you
answer the question whether the campaign should continue, be developed further or simply
stopped.
The objectives you set out for the campaign is what you explore after the campaign by
evaluating it. (For the specific objectives set for the fatigue campaign see the part on
objectives).
Questionnaires
There are various ways of evaluating, but if you want to have a valid and representative
evaluation (and have a large target group) a quantitative approach is needed. Preparing a
questionnaire to use and fulfil by asking a representative part of the target group in different
parts of the country is a good and handy method. Questionnaires can be used at road side
interviews where you meet the target group directly, at lorry stations or in other places where
you meet the target group for the campaign.
Proposal for questionnaire for bus and tro-tro drivers on the fatigue driver
campaign 2007
2) Sex: M __ F __
3) Age_____ years
7) If you have, what have you seen or heard and to what extent?
(Mention the different medias and the categories to answer)
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6. Articles in newspapers _____ ______ ______ _____
7. TV news/programmes _____ ______ ______ _____
8. Radio news/programmes ____ ______ ______ _____
9. Programmes at lorry station ____ ______ ______ _____
11) Have you discussed the campaign (fatigue in traffic) with others and whom?
a. Colleagues ____
b. Passengers ____
c. Family ____
d. Employer ____
e. Friends ____
f. Others ____
g. No, nobody ____
h. Don’t remember ____
12) How dangerous do you regard fatigue driving as a risk of getting involved in traffic
accidents?
On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being very high risk, 10 being very low ____
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Your eyes feel heavy___
You blink your eyes a lot___
14) Has the campaign influenced your awareness of not driving tired?
15) Do you take any breaks during a working day Yes ___ No ___
16) Has the campaign influenced you in order to avoid driving tired
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External evaluators
When interpreting the results of the evaluation of a campaign it is essential to let an impartial
consultant do the job. In that way you secure that all relevant issues are being dug into, also if
the results are not as you expected them to be.
The client would like Ablin Consult to be responsible for the evaluation of the NRSC Fatigue
Campaign, which has been launched and implemented from October 24th and ongoing for a
month.
Method:
To get the highest possible impact, the campaign has been launched intensely in specific
chosen road corridors where billboards have been put up and where stakeholders have
handed out stickers to tro-tro and bus drivers. The achieved awareness can thereby also be
measured more easily, and concrete objectives for awareness and understanding of the
message can be set for these places.
An interview survey at those selected localities will be conducted with a questionnaire for
500 bus and tro-tro drivers. The purpose is to know if the campaign has been seen,
understood and accepted by the target group, and show if the target groups attitude and
behaviour has been influenced. A questionnaire for drivers has been prepared.
The interviews will be held at different locations in preferably three different regions chosen
according to where the outreach programmes have taken place. The interviews should be
conducted less than two weeks after the end of the campaign.
The analysis of the 500 interviews should result in a report delivered to the NRSC by the
end of December 2007.
We want drivers, passengers and vehicle owners to realize that fatigue/tiredness causes
dangerous situations and accidents. We want them to know the signals of being/feeling
tired, and we want to pass on to them how to cope with fatigue in traffic.
Since the main target group is tro-tro and bus drivers they are also the ones we set
objectives for.
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Awareness:
70 % of the target group have noticed the campaign
50 % of the target group remember the general message
10 % of the target group remember at least 2 specific messages
25 % of the target group have talked to others about the campaign
Knowledge:
50 % know what to do to reduce risk of accidents due to fatigue driving.
Attitude:
50 % regard fatigue driving as one of the third most important issues in order to reduce
accidents among the commercial drivers
25 % are positive to regulations to reduce fatigue driving
25 % are positive to more control of fatigue driving
Behaviour:
20 % of the target group claim to take more breaks while driving after the campaign.
Campaign process:
After the campaign, a questionnaire will be distributed among the participating
organisations, institutions and authorities to register how they experienced the campaign
and what they can suggest to improve in fatigue campaigns to come. This will be handled
internally at the NRSC and is not part of the task for Ablin Consult.
Press Relations:
The NRSC also evaluate the amount and content of what has been broadcasted and printed
about the campaign in the medias in order to find out how widely the campaign message
has been spread out. This part of the evaluation is also being handled by the NRSC
internally.
Enclosed with the terms of reference for the evaluation please find a project description of
the fatigue campaign and the questionnaire.
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Evaluation report
At the end the evaluation of the campaign will give guidelines to future campaigns. Should a
certain campaign be altered, repeated or stopped? Together with other means of evaluation
concerning the press activities and the process of developing and coordinating the campaign
among the stakeholders the evaluation report will give a better picture of which route to
follow.
Conclusions – Virtually all the respondents have correctly understood the message about
fatigue and its impact on road crashes. Most of the positive responses to the programme
were consistently above 70 percent. All the modes of communication were effective in
communicating the intended message and meaning of the message. Most of them identified
with the content as relevant and could recall the campaign message. Most claimed to have
changed their behavior directly as a result of the campaign. These changes included taking
breaks during drive time. The only limitation relates inadequate break times during drive
time and driving for long hours in a day…..
So all objectives set out before the campaign were met and even more than that. A
conclusion is then, that the campaign was very successful and therefore it is recommended
that it is repeated and developed further….
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The campaign circle
When going through all the stages mentioned in this handbook the campaign circle has been
concluded. It started with analysis from which you lay out a strategy. Then the campaign and
the materials are designed and produced, the press activities and local activities are prepared
and carried out, the campaign is being implemented, evaluated and experiences will hence be
made for campaigns to come.
Analysis
Implementation
Strategy
Designing
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