Penalty Points: How Advertising Drove the Point Home

The aim was to raise awareness of the introduction of penalty points to Northern Ireland. By using an informational message and edutainment strategy the campaign satirised types of unsafe drivers and prompted people to recognise themselves in the ads. The campaign resulted in the core message being clearly understood by 80% of drivers and achieved 84% prompted recall therefore achieving its awareness objectives. The TV advertising was cited as the main source of knowledge about the penalty points by 76% of motorists. In addition it successfully elicited substantial changes in reported attitudes and driving behaviour