SCA Perth uses ’90s classic to encourage safe driving across WA

Ahead of the latest road safety and courtesy campaign for Western Australia, the state’s Road Safety Commission turned to Southern Cross Austereo to help decide on a song to help the campaign resonate with listeners.

Thanks to SCA’s exclusive partnership with global audio benchmarking leaders Veritonic, SCA Perth discovered that ‘Whoever You Are’ by Geggy Tah would offer the right sentiment for the latest advertising campaign.

As a result, the song can be heard in the ‘Ride The Wave’ campaign across SCA WA’s entire metro and regional network comprising 36 stations, as well as the Nine Network’s execution of the same campaign for TV.

“Music has immense power in making people feel something instantly, and instinctively,” said SCA’s Perth-based national head of creativity, Matt Dickson.

“We knew if we chose the right song, that not only would it provide great recall and appeal for the campaign – it would also relax people and bring down stress levels, making for a more peaceful and courteous driving experience for everyone.”

It was one of several songs shortlisted, and results from Veritonic testing showed the song was seen as the most ‘relaxed’ and ‘happy’ of all the songs tested.

“We chose a few songs based on gut feel and the sentiment in the lyrics,” Dickson said. “Being able to research the emotional appeal of each track through Veritonic put some science behind the art. When we got the results back, we could see Geggy Tah’s ‘Whoever You Are’ was a clear winner.”

With lyrics like  “All I want to do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are. You let me change lanes, while I was driving in my car,” the campaign uses the proximity of in-car listening to encourage drivers, while they are in the car, to consider others and exercise courtesy when possible.

“It was a terrific initiative from our SCA Perth Studio Team, with the support from the Road Safety Commission and the Longreach Media and Marketing agency, to utilise music as a contributor to the campaign,” said SCA WA Head of Sales, Noel Quick.

“The other aspect of the campaign was our ability to communicate the message right across the entire state of WA, in a consistent and relevant way.

“Every one of our talent on the Hit and Triple M WA networks has a voice in this campaign, within their local markets. Live radio is such a relevant and effective way to deliver the message to the community.”