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Dumb Ways to Die viral ‘leads to 20% drop in dumb behaviour at Melbourne train stations’

Metro Trains has seen a 20% drop in “dumb behaviour” on train platforms in the Melbourne area in the two months since the launch of the popular Dumb Ways to Die safety video, the transport operator’s head marketer claimed last night.

Speaking at Mumbrella’s Meet the Marketers session in the Victorian capital, Leah Waymark, general manager of corporate relations for Metro Trains, said that the three-minute cartoon – which has amassed 40m views since it launched in November – had prompted a sharp reduction in “risky or dumb behaviour”, such as walking or driving around boomgates.

Incidences of safety near misses at stations have fallen 20% against the annual average, and are down 15% compared to this time last year, she later told Mumbrella.

However, Waymark admitted that a risk of the musical safety ad is that it could “get into people’s heads” if played too often at train stations, and there was a need to move the campaign on into new areas.

A push into schools will come next as Metro Trains looks to reinforce the message among young Victorians, she said. E-direct marketing, booklets, apps and games will be the areas in which the campaign looks to expand.

Waymark also revealed that there had been “a lot of global commercial interest” in the viral, and Metro Trains was currently exploring these opportunities.

The viral was created by Metro Trains’ ad agency McCann Melbourne.

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