{"id":124537,"date":"2018-09-28T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=124537"},"modified":"2020-05-21T09:39:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T08:39:43","slug":"campaign-of-the-week-dumb-ways-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/campaign-of-the-week-dumb-ways-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign of the Week: Dumb ways to die"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Melbourne Metro made a public service video marketing ad creative instead of doom and gloom<\/h2>\n

In 2012 Melbourne Metro needed to promote rail safety in a campaign that had to resonate with their rail users in a video marketing campaign. It was something that would usually take the form of an informative\u00a0safety\u00a0display ad which would not envoke much of an active response from viewers. Not this time.<\/p>\n

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\"dumb<\/p>\n

The Play<\/h3>\n

McCann, Metro's agency, decided to go down the route of entertainment, writing some hilarious lyrics to a song about all the dumb ways to die\u2014such as poking a grizzly bear, selling both your kidneys on the internet or using your privates as piranha bait\u2014to underline the message that you need to be safe around trains because one of the dumbest ways to die is to get hit by one.<\/p>\n

The resulting song, recorded by Tangerine Kitty, launched via iTunes, radio, YouTube and more. Within 24 hours of its launch in November 2012, the \u201cDumb Ways to Die\u201d song reached the top 10 chart of iTunes. But it was the YouTube video that really sealed this campaign\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

The video was animated by Julian Frost and produced by Cinnamon Darvall. It was uploaded to YouTube on 14 November 2012 and made public two days later. It featured \"Numpty, Hapless, Pillock, Dippy, Dummkopf, Dimwit, Stupe, Lax, Clod, Doomed, Numskull, Bungle, Mishap, Dunce, Calamity, Ninny, Botch and Doofus killing themselves in increasingly stupid ways\" culminating in the last three characters (Stumble, Bonehead and Putz) being killed by trains due to unsafe behavior.<\/p>\n

It was viewed 2.5 million times within 48 hours and 4.7 million times within 72 hours. Within two weeks, the video had been viewed 30 million times. As of September 2018, the video has received over 170 million views.<\/p>\n