A simple road safety message, delivered clearly and at the crucial moment, has been selected in London’s first annual Re:act behaviour change program.
Devised by a University of the Arts London student, the selected London campaign for Re:act 2020, ‘#EyesUpPhonesDown’, highlights the road safety topic of distraction, a major challenge for all young road users, including drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
The annual Re:act program challenges university students to create a behaviour change campaign that raises awareness among 18-25 year old road users of a critical road safety issue where they are over-represented. The Re:act 2020 topic is distraction.
An initiative of creative behaviour change agency Hard Edge, Re:act, now in its fifth year, expanded internationally in 2020, running in London through University of the Arts London (UAL), and with the support of industry partners FIA Foundation, PepsiCo International, Zurich and Transport for London.
The program has also run in Australia this year in Melbourne with Swinburne University, Sydney at University of Technology Sydney, and Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. Further national and international expansion is planned for 2021.
The selected campaign for Re:act 2020 in London, ‘#EyesUpPhonesDown’, was created by UAL student Reana Kerai. Aimed at the vulnerable road user group of pedestrians, it used clear messaging and eye-catching animation to remind young people to look up from their mobile phone and be aware of their surroundings.
Campaigns rounding out the top four in London showed the diverse approaches students took. The ‘Stay Focused’ campaign highlighted many of the distractions we face in our busy lives, ‘Stay Grounded’ focused on headphones as a distraction for pedestrians, and ‘Danger In Mind’ used humour to convey a serious message.
Re:act founder and CEO Andrew Hardwick commended UAL students on the standard of campaigns they produced. The quality and creativity of the campaigns was also praised by Re:act industry partners, who were ‘absolutely blown away’ by the students’ work, describing it as ‘inventive’, ‘original’, ‘striking’ and ‘compelling’.
Feedback from program partners also reinforced the importance of Re:act’s ability to give students a ‘real world’ experience and to increase road safety awareness among a group of road users over-represented in road trauma, particularly around a topic personally relevant to them.
With funding from the Re:act program, the students behind each selected campaign will work with the support of Hard Edge to launch their campaigns on their respective university campuses.
“Expanding Re:act internationally in 2020 was a satisfying and important step for a program that has been recognised in Australia for its ability to increase awareness and drive behaviour change among young road users. The commitment of University of the Arts London and our inaugural industry partners was instrumental in Re:act expanding into the UK, and the way they engaged with the program was a key factor in driving students to produce exceptional work. The selected campaign, which delivered a simple behaviour change message in a succinct and striking way, reflected the high standard of work produced. With such positive outcomes, and overwhelmingly favourable feedback from university and industry partners, we intend to run Re:act in the UK again in 2021, and further expand the program internationally.”
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Andrew Hardwick
Re:act Founder and Hard Edge Managing Director
London 2020 campaigns – top four
‘Eyes Up, Phones Down’ Reana Kerai
“Through my research, I found pedestrians were the most vulnerable road users and there weren’t as many campaigns aimed at pedestrians compared to drivers, so I thought it would be a good idea to target pedestrians. I based my campaign around the #EyesUpPhonesDown hashtag. It was aimed at people aged 18-25, so within my own age range, to look up instead of down at their mobile phones while crossing the road and to be more aware of their surroundings. I thought Re:act was great. I found it quite hard at the beginning but this is one of the best projects I have done for university. I didn’t think I could create something like this, particularly with the different types of media I was able to produce, but the Re:act program allowed me to do that.”
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Reana Kerai
Student who worked on selected campaign
‘Danger In Mind’ Rita Oom
‘Stay Focused’ Sue Heeyeon An
‘Stay Grounded’ Nathalie Ryan
For more information on Re:act visit reactforchange.com