Social marketing plays a key role in road safety

摘要

Using modern media to deliver targeted campaigns can help bring improvements in road safety in these economically challenging times. The cultural and political landscape of public services has shifted dramatically, even in recent months. This has placed a huge demand on transport professionals involved in road safely strategies to reflect a broader base of skills, understanding of policy and flexibility in their delivery. We are now required to 'nudge' our way into new policies, delivering on the same tough road safety targets with the remnants of budgets we used to deem as inadequate, but now already regard with nostalgia. This new 'nudge' approach is increasingly making use of what is known as social marketing such as Twitter, news feeds and Facebook. The father of nuclear physics Ernest Rutherford once stated: "Gentleman, we didn't have the money, so we had to think". In this spirit, here are some thoughts about how to make the most of your road safety budgets - assuming you still have them - and what we have learned about social marketing in recent times.