VESTENGER OF THE LIGHT - How we brought lights to the streets of Latvia

During the dark season of the year, the Latvian Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) always organises a campaign to encourage people to be visible when they’re on the road. One of the biggest challenges each year is to present the message in a way that will once again be of interest to people.

The main message of this campaign is that a person who wears a reflective vest carries light in a direct and indirect sense. Our ambassadors of light accented this fact. They included the President and prime minister of Latvia, statues of important figures from the past, journalists, hockey players and their fans and even dogs. We produced a humorous video to demonstrate respect for people who wear the vest. The video has been seen more than 400,000 times, and more than 7,000 Facebook users have shared it.

CSDD / Vai veste padara ievērojamu? from DDB Latvia on Vimeo.

A second major aspect is that we made it easier for people to get the vests, offering them at those locations from which people most often depart into dark streets – intercity buses, post offices, Maxima stores and Statoil petrol stations. All of these became official embassies of light.

We are delighted that this campaign has already created a lot of light that is extensively reflected in society. Our greatest joy, however, is about the fact that by working together, we have managed to reduce the number of pedestrians killed on the streets by 20% during the first 10 months of this year, as compared to the same period last year. Let’s keep on carrying the light during the darkest time of the year!