Drive like a woman: Hankook Tire awarded for safety campaign
When my mate Scotty uttered that I drove like a woman he meant it as a slur, but the joke is now on him – it turns out that this is an award-winning driving style. The award is a bronze 2017 Epica Award in the online campaigns – automotive category, and was given to Hankook Tire Sweden for a short video highlighting the over-representation of men, and younger men in particular, in Sweden’s road accident statistics. The campaign is titled Kör som en kvinna, which in English means ‘Drive like a woman’.
“We are delighted to receive such a prestigious award for a campaign where the main purpose was to increase road safety in Sweden by influencing how men and particular young men are driving,” says Christine Silfversparre, marketing manager at Hankook Tire Sweden. “The title of the campaign was deliberately provocative and it took off immediately, reaching approximately 8 million people with our message and we hope that the roads are now a bit safer.”
The campaign was jointly initiated by the Swedish non-governmental road safety association NTF and Hankook Tire Sweden. Commenting on why it decided to help address the male bias towards coming a cropper on the road, Hankook Tire remarks that “the statistics speak for themselves.” The company makes the bold statement that men are not as safe drivers as women, citing studies that show we take more risks, drive with smaller margins and with significantly higher risk to themselves and others on the road.
The video was produced by Stockholm-based marketing solutions agency Cheil Nordic AB. Tae Kyung Kim, managing director of Cheil Nordic, comments that ‘Drive like a woman’ was based on statistics that show women to be safer in traffic – a contrast to stereotypes to the contrary. The film panders to these stereotypes before abruptly presenting official road statistics towards the end.
“It was the provocative message in combination with hard work using both PR and digital channels that made it possible to get this high reach,” says Tae Kyung Kim. “For Hankook as a relatively new and unknown brand on the Swedish market, this was a very good way of building awareness. As a player in the automotive industry it shows that Hankook priorities their consumers’ safety with their products and their approach in the market.”
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