Seattle Department of Transportation: Slow The Flock Down

The Situation

In 2022, Seattle Department of Transportation hired Team Soapbox to implement a campaign to raise awareness and encourage behavior change of Seattle drivers. As part of the Vision Zero work at SDOT, the campaign message to drivers was twofold: drive 25mph on arterial streets and stop for pedestrians at all intersections (marked or unmarked).

The approach

To begin our work, we hosted a learning and listening session with SDOT staff and key stakeholders to gather data and information to allow us to begin to narrow our audience and geographic areas, as well as discuss the goals and objectives for the campaign. Through these work sessions, we determined that the primary audiences were males ages 16-49 who travel through North and South Seattle, and that SDOT sought the campaign be bold, memorable, and eye-opening to garner the attention of Seattle drivers and the primary audience.

With this information, Team Soapbox began by developing several different approaches to the campaign. We worked with SDOT staff and key stakeholders to gather their input and feedback, revising the campaign themes and creative until we had three solid versions for consideration.

These three possible campaign themes and creative were then populated into a survey that generated results from hundreds of Seattle drivers, a majority of respondents being from our primary audience. The survey results then led SDOT staff and the Seattle Mayor’s office to land on the concept for the campaign: “Slow The Flock Down” and “Stop for Flock’s Sake”.

We also developed four animated videos for the campaign, two 30-second animated videos for use on social media (Facebook, Instagram and TikTok) and two 6-second videos for use on YouTube. All the videos delivered the message that drivers need to “Slow the Flock Down” on arterial streets and when they see pedestrians they need to “Stop for Flock’s Sake”.

-        Flock Watch: Making Seattle Streets Safer - YouTube

-        Flock Watch (Short) - YouTube

-        Slow the Flock Down (Short) - YouTube

-        Slow the Flock Down - YouTube

The campaign rolled out through both a strategic paid media strategy and grassroots efforts. We developed and implemented a marketing advertising campaign focused in North and South Seattle that included billboards, bus boards, radio, digital advertising, and targeted social media videos and static ads on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Team Soapbox developed all the creative for these marketing advertisements.

Our grassroots campaign focused on outreach through neighborhood events and community centers. Our team attended over 10 community events and neighborhood farmer markets where we handed out yard signs and bumper stickers, and talked with residents about the importance of driving 25mph and stopping for pedestrians. During this time, our team handed out nearly 1,000 yard signs to residents.

The campaign scaled prominently throughout Seattle, with yard signs becoming noticeable in every neighborhood across the city. The campaign has also been adopted and implemented in Portland, OR and Cincinnati, OH.

The Slow the Flock Down was recognized by the Puget Sound Public Relations with a 2023 Summit Award for “Best Public Service PR Campaign.”