Tinnyvision

Background

50,000 young Kiwis admitted to driving stoned. They didn't want to hear that marijuana slowed their reactions and made driving dangerous. And if they heard any message from the Government, they tuned out immediately.

The NZTA needed a way to get these people sufficiently interested so that they would at least consider the message.

Idea

Tinnyvision was a group of guys Snapchatting their stoner sessions. When anyone started following them they would be sent a series of snaps, which they could look at and laugh at before they disappeared. Gone. No incriminating evidence.

Trusted editors of stoner sites encouraged their followers to follow Tinnyvision.

They saw a sequence of snaps showing the guys getting increasingly stoned throughout the day before the 11th snap showed them going for a drive.

A girl stepped out. The driver was slow to react. The girl hit the windscreen. Then, one final snap revealed the message, 'Stoned drivers are slower to react'.

Results

Tinnyvision got the attention of 10,000 hard to reach teenagers. 98% spent a whole day with it, sticking around until the last snap. The final message really resonated because they had had the time to relate to the characters.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

It was risky from a government agency but the unique approach hit headlines in mainstream media and on stoner sites getting the message spread more widely.

Our Thoughts

This is really smart thinking. Where do teenagers go when they’re out of their heads? Snapchat. Because it provides instant laughs and there’s no come-back. So using a platform which is almost completely advertising-free to get a message across to people whose barriers to marketing are high is neat. And because it’s neat, its target audience gives it both attention and respect. Getting dope mavens to promote Tinnyvision was smart too.