2008 PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition

Project Brief

WHO IS THE CLIENT?
Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, is this year’s client for the 2008 Bateman Case Study Campaign. The specific project will be to create a new initiative for the Safe Kids Buckle Up (SKBU) program. Chevy has sponsored the SKBU program on behalf of Safe Kids Worldwide® (SKW) for the last three years. SKW is the only international nonprofit organization dedicated solely to preventing unintentional childhood injury. It focuses on one specific problem: more children age 1 to 14 die from accidents such as motor vehicle crashes, fires, drowning, poisoning and falls than any other cause. These incidents kill 1 million children each year around the world and permanently disable many more, and almost all of these injuries are preventable.

SKW promotes changes in attitudes, behaviors, laws and the environment to prevent accidental injury to children. In the United States, SKW has contributed to a 45 percent reduction in the child fatality rate from accidental injury.

General Motors (GM), the world’s largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 76 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 280,000 people around the world. With worldwide headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2006, nearly 9.1 million GM cars and trucks were sold internationally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM is intensely devoted to child safety, especially as it relates to vehicles. In fact, GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry lead in vehicle safety, security and information services. GM has many other safety features available for its vehicles including, StabiliTrak (electronic stability control) and Daytime Running Lamps, which have saved more than 400 lives and averted 37,000 crashes of all types since 1995. GM is also introducing two new safety features in 2008 – Side Blind Zone Alert and Lane Departure Warning to test on select vehicles. Because of its commitment to building safe products and trying to constantly devise new ways to create safer vehicles, GM found it fitting to become involved as a major partner with SKW. SKW depends on the support of grassroots networks in its 16 member countries to implement safety programs and hands-on training throughout the world. In the United States, Safe Kids has more than 325 local coalitions and another 300 chapters in cities across the country. Coalitions consist of organizations and volunteers that are all dedicated to child safety. Each coalition is required to work with a local lead agency which is often a health department, a hospital, or a fire department. A coordinator from the lead agency runs the coalition in each community. In addition to coalitions, there are smaller chapters that also conduct local programming and report to the state Safe Kids office. These grassroots coalitions include law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics, health and safety experts, professionals, educators, parents, businesses, foundations, governments, policymakers, volunteers, and most importantly–children–to educate and protect families.

THE PROGRAM SKBU was created by SKW and its program partner GM in 1996. It is the organization’s largest, most comprehensive program and is available to every coalition. SKBU teaches families about keeping children safe in and around vehicles and offers parents and caregivers hands-on instruction in installing car seats and booster seats and presents interactive educational programs for children ages 14 and under.

The SKBU program provides grants to Safe Kids coalitions to conduct local safety programs. These networks of grassroots volunteers include nationally certified child passenger safety technicians, transportation safety experts, public officials, police officers, nurses and public heath experts partnering with GM dealerships.

In 2004, Chevrolet became the lead GM brand in the partnership, creating even more opportunities for SKW and its coalitions to reach parents, caregivers and children. Chevy is one of America’s most well-known and successful automotive brands and also has the largest dealer network in the Untied States. Chevy constantly keeps its customers’ safety in mind, and its community outreach through its partnership with SKBU is an excellent way to maintain a mutually advantageous relationship.

In addition, the SKBU program has evolved to include safety programs beyond those dealing with car seats and crash protection, most notably with the “Children In and Around Cars” program. Nearly 10 percent of motor vehicle-related deaths to children are considered non-traffic-related, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such incidents occur somewhere other than a public highway, street or road – for example, when children are struck by vehicles in parking lots or driveways or when they are left unattended in vehicles. These entirely preventable injuries and deaths are serious public health issues. Three SKBU “Children In and Around Cars” programs – Spot the Tot, Never Leave Your Child Alone and Preventing Trunk Entrapment – stress that vehicles are not toys and children should never be left alone in or around them.

THE OPPORTUNITY
Since its launch, SKBU has reached more than 13 million people at 40,000 events. SKBU has given more than 365,000 child safety seats to families in need and are well on their way to inspecting more than 1 million car seats and booster seats for proper installation.

SKBU has designed several programs to teach vehicle safety messages to families. Until recently, these programs have largely been geared toward families with younger children (ages 6 and under). Some of the program components include: Car Seat Checkup events, Mobile Car Seat Check Up Vans, Inspection Stations, Children In and Around Cars outreach, NASCAR events, and others.

Research conducted by SKW shows that the education parents receive at SKBU events keeps children safer in vehicles. Based on data from car seat checkup events conducted in 29 states in February 2005, Safe Kids found that parents successfully changed their behavior and retained their child passenger safety knowledge six weeks after receiving hands-on instruction. At a second child safety seat checkup, parents installed 45 percent more seats correctly than at the first instructional event, and no children arrived at the second event unrestrained.

While the SKBU program has primarily focused on children ages 0-10 who ride in car seats and booster seats, keeping children safe in cars does not end when a child is old enough to fit in an adult seat belt. SKBU plans to expand its educational outreach to children ages 11-14 and their parents and caregivers. Since SKBU has not tailored its messaging to children of this age group, this project is an opportunity to allow students to construct a public relations plan and design a program to reach older children.

Children who are ages 11-14 are beginning to make their own decisions and are becoming responsible for their actions. They are also becoming more independent and may be traveling in vehicles where there is no adult to tell them how to be safe. Safe Kids goal is to begin to equip these children with knowledge of safe behavior related to vehicles so that they feel comfortable telling a driver when they are not safe and they can start making smart decisions about their own safety. Children of this age also may start becoming responsible for younger siblings or other younger relatives and family friends. Teaching them to know why children should not be left alone in vehicles and why everyone should be buckled up at all times will provide them with information they can use to help educate drivers they are with and that they can use when they become drivers themselves.

Part of this program also will be to educate the parents and caregivers of these older children (11-14). While the tweens (11-12) and parents learn well together, many of these young teens (13-14) are becoming independent, and, therefore, the learning opportunities for parents and children may need to be separate.

The plan should include the four components of a campaign: research, planning, implementation and evaluation. It should assist the coalitions and chapters in raising awareness about staying safe around vehicles as well as working towards changing the behavior of older children. In addition, it should include Chevy safety messages. Bateman teams will have an opportunity to provide valuable insight on how to communicate with children aged 11 to 14 and on how to make safety a priority for this difficult-to-reach age group. In addition, a successful campaign will provide a foundation for an ongoing outreach program for SKBU to use in the future.

The client for the 2008 Bateman Case Study Competition is the Chevy-sponsored SKW organization--specifically the SKBU program. Teams will have the task of developing a program dedicated to reaching children in the 11-14 age group for a local coalition or chapter. The focus of the campaign and programming should be about the importance of buckling up and other good safety behaviors related to vehicles.

AUDIENCES
Primary:

• Tweens and young teens aged 11 to 14, especially within underserved communities (lower socio-economic status, children of color, non-English speaking).

Secondary:

• Parents and caregivers of children in the selected group.

OBJECTIVES

• Encourage seat belt use in all vehicles, no matter who is driving.
• Increase knowledge and awareness (must be quantifiable) of good safety behaviors among the target audiences
• Encourage positive role modeling for younger siblings and other children
• Provide the tween and young teen audience with a framework to make good safety decisions for kids who are beginning to make choices independent of parents and caregivers
• Integrate Chevy’s concern for the safety of children in and around vehicles and showcase the brand as a good corporate citizen using the corporate safety messages
• Promote Chevy products and the safety features on GM vehicles
• Adapt current SKBU messaging for tweens and young teens
• Use various channels including traditional as well as social/viral and grassroots media networks

KEY SAFETY MESSAGES (Safe Kids Buckle Up)

• Everyone in a vehicle should be buckled up the correct way on every ride
• All kids younger than 13 should ride in a back seat
• Vehicles are not toys and kids should never be left alone in or around them
• Walk completely around a parked vehicle to check for kids before turning on the engine
• Kids who do not properly fit in an adult seat belt (usually children under 4’ 9” and less than 80-100 pounds) should use a booster seat

GM/CHEVY CORPORATE SAFETY MESSAGES

• GM is focused on providing comprehensive safety before, during and--thanks to OnStar--after a crash.
• Before a crash:
  • A commitment to add electronic stability control (StabiliTrak) to every light vehicle GM sells in the United States and Canada by the end of the decade
  • Daytime Running Lamps, which GM began installing in its vehicles in the mid-1990s
  • 2008 pilot programs for new safety-enhancing technologies like Side Blind Zone Alert and Lane Departure Warning
• During a crash:
  • Safety belts with pretensioning
  • Frontal, side and rollover-capable air bags
  • Vehicle structures including crush zones and safety cage designs
  • Opening the first automotive manufacturing rollover crash testing facility in 2006 to investigate ways of keeping occupants from being ejected in rollover crashes
• After a crash:
  • OnStar, which includes Automatic Advanced Crash Notification (new for 2007) for all moderate to severe crashes regardless of whether or not the air bag deploys
  • Working with the Centers for Disease Control to help identify certain types of crash injuries to better assist first responders in crash scenes.

RESOURCES
In addition to the information distributed with the case study competition overview, you can visit www.safekids.org for more information about the SKBU program including research, media materials and information on past outreach campaigns.

Once PRSSA receives the intent-to-enter forms, SKBU and Chevy will provide a variety of background materials, including program brochures, fact sheets, information on local affiliates and a contact sheet for more information.

*You may wish to consider reaching out to your local Chevrolet dealership for more product information and assistance with the campaign.

*Because SKW coalitions and chapters are comprised of volunteers from their host organizations, some may be able to provide more support than others. If you find that your local coalition or chapter does not have the ability to accommodate your needs, please contact one of the SKBU national liaisons to have them direct you to a more established coalition or chapter.

ADDENDUM:

Outreach Partners
SKBU’s partnerships with groups such as the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the Urban League and other local community organizations have allowed SKBU to reach the families that need the assistance of SKBU the most. It may be helpful to contact these organizations during your campaigns.

Working with the Cub Scouts of America, SKBU recently designed a program to meet the vehicle safety needs of kids 6-to-10 years old. SKBU customized its interactive safety stations with an emphasis on the scouts becoming good safety role models for siblings and friends, who are also invited to attend the events. After successfully completing the stations, scouts earn an authorized automotive safety patch for their uniforms. Based on the program’s success with the Cub Scouts, SKBU plans to make custom-made versions of this activity available to other organizations and age groups.

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