Gujarat: Surat-based creative agency Gemius Design Studio successfully executed an innovative interactive civil society campaign ‘iFollow’ for Surat City Traffic Police to forward actual change in people regarding traffic rules with the help of social experiments, social accountability, and citizen appreciation.
The 3-week long campaign started on from the 7th July 2020 was carried out in two phases- first, practicing social experiments and social accountability activities to create awareness about the traffic rules and second, measurement of the impact of the campaign.
The campaign has seen huge success and Gemius has received a phenomenal response from the local citizens. With everyday social media postings, online ads, social experiments, and social commitment techniques for the purpose of the campaign, we were able to reach out to nearly 20 Lakh people- digitally and on-field combined.
Statistically, the Facebook page of Surat City Traffic Police saw an increase in followers and likes over the period of the campaign and currently stand at 10,505 followers and 9,743 likes and more. There is also a jump in the terms of the reach of the post on the platform. On Instagram, the follower count for the official Surat City Traffic Police has jumped from 1,635 to 7,248. Overall, we recorded 73k Impressions, 5k Opens, 746 captures, and 352 shares on Instagram.
People are gradually changing their attitude towards the rules and adapting the basics of traffic regulations in their everyday life. Post-implementation of the campaign, we have observed an increase in the number of people following the traffic rules and a substantial decrease in the offenders. “Surtis” are now more consciously inclined towards following the rules and guidelines in contrast to before the campaign, which marks the success of the campaign in spreading awareness in the city.
Through the course of the campaign, Surat Police and Gemius received over 500 messages with feedback- both positive and negative. However, the positive feedback was overshadowed by the negative comments. While the campaign proved to yield positive results, the only bump in the road faced during its execution was the reigning situation of the pandemic.
Prashant Sumbe, DCP, Surat City Traffic Police said, ‘After a month-long campaign of such a huge scale, we are proud to say that our purpose to spread awareness was fulfilled. All our traffic police personnel were all hands-on deck to make sure that the followers were given appreciation tokens and offenders were indulged in social commitment to make sure that they follow the rules from next time. All in all, with the support and cooperation of the public, the campaign was a huge success! This is a stepping stone towards a progressive tomorrow and we urge the city of Surat to diligently follow rules and make our roads safer’.
Saurabh Pacheriwal, Co-Founder & Captain, Gemius shares, ‘Planning and executing a campaign of such a large scale was a challenge at first due to the ongoing pandemic, but we were successful in our aim to reach as many people as possible through our initiative. We put in a lot of effort throughout the course of the campaign and carried out all the activities with positive outcomes. Use of digital campaigning and story sharing helped us a lot and we have been happy to see the positive response from the city’
