L01 Written Analysis Dumb Ways to Die Campaign November 2012

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw - Dumb Ways to die music video


https://itunes.apple.com/app/dumb-ways-to-die/id639930688 - Dumb Ways to die game

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/dumb-ways-to-die-single/id575962249  - Dumb ways to die song

Dumb ways to die poster in train stations

The target audience is the general public who use trains regularly as its purpose is to make people aware about the dangers of not paying attention/ being safe when around trains . The target audience of this campaign would probably be people aged between 16-24 both male and female as this age group are most likely to commute to school/ work by train and as well as this they are stereotypically on their smartphones which can cause them to be un aware of their surroundings and as well as this a lot of the campaign is online based therefore if they use smartphones they can access different elements of the campaign e.g the game or the theme song. I believe that the NRS grade of the campaign is C2 as they would need to be financially stable or in a financially stable family in order to have a smart phone and to afford using the train or metro.

The key message of the campaign is to make people become aware of the dangers and risks of not being cautious when around the metro or trains as in Australia which the campaign was first launched, in Melbourne the amount of 'Near misses' in the following months after the campaign launched dropped from 13.29 a year to  9.17 which suggests that the message of the campaign was acknowledged by its target audience thus making it successful.

There are multiple methods this campaign used to engage its audience one of which was creating  game which allowed the audience to gain points by making sure different characters safe in multiple mini games in order to achieve points and the game also featured a button that a player could click which allowed them to state that they would be safe around trains. Another method they used to engage the audience was including an extremely catchy song which was included in the campaigns online video and the game which emphasised all the "Dumb ways to die' and this was clearly an effective and catchy song as it charted in 28 different countries on iTunes.

The key issue raised in this campaign is the ongoing problem with railway safety  which caused this awareness campaign to launch showing various characters getting injured in different ways with the main purpose of the mobile game being to prevent characters from getting injured which enforces the message of be careful and observant when doing things and especially when near trains. The characters used are all coloured fictional designs that have been used to make the campaign more visual and recognisable when these characters are seen. Some of the characters could be deemed as stereotypes for example it showed a character listening to music and not paying attention to its surroundings which some people may think that it is a stereotype of a teenager.
The campaign originally launched in November 2012 to decrease the rate of train related incidents  along with the music video of '21 characters killing themselves in stupid ways' which was launched on November 14th 2012 and as of December 2015 it had obtained over 117 million reviews and the song managed to chart number 38 in the Uk Indie Charts . Later on in the campaign the mobile game was release in May 2013 for iOS devices with an android version releasing in September with the same purpose as the rest of the campaign encouraging people to be safe when performing  different tasks and especially when near trains. 

This choice of media is effective in enforcing the key message of the campaign as by including lots of visual elements by using VOD and a game it allows the campaign to be remembered by an audience due to its bright original character's and its catchy theme song. As well as this with the target audience being young adults in a C2-3 NRS grade by using a more online based campaign it reaches them easier as they are more likely to be using YouTube or playing games on there phone or even on social media where this campaign can be shared thus making them take into account the message of the campaign.