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Road Ready Teens

Road Ready Teens offers parents and teens tips and innovative tools designed to help
teens gain the necessary driving experience and maturity behind the wheel before
tackling high-risk driving situations.

PAUL HOLMES 13 MAY 2005 // 11:00PM GMT

Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teens. Teenagers 16 to 19 are far more likely
to be killed in a car crash than any other age group. This is due to two factors – driver
inexperience and lack of maturity behind the wheel. Research shows that when parents take an
active role in their teens’ driver education and set driving guidelines, their teens’ chances of
being in a crash can be reduced by up to one-third. Teen driving safety has become a national
priority and a top concern for parents.
That’s why DaimlerChrysler brought together top safety experts and created a research-driven,
home-based program, Road Ready Teens, to combat the problem. Road Ready Teens offers
parents and teens tips and innovative tools designed to help teens gain the necessary driving
experience and maturity behind the wheel before tackling high-risk driving situations.
The recommendations that underpin the program are embodied in Graduated Driver Licensing
(GDL) laws in most states. Road Ready Teens has two key components, Get Road Ready: A
Parent’s Guide to Safely Ease Teens into Driving and a state-of-the-art online video game,
StreetWise, to give parents and teens comprehensive tips and tactics to safely ease a teen into
driving in formats they prefer. The parent’s guide gives parents and teens room to personalize
their plan, opens communication channels and also includes a parent-teen driving contract.
Adding to the guide, the video game, StreetWise, combines the popularity and excitement of
video games while seamlessly embedding learning in the game. StreetWise provides a virtual
driving experience that helps teens understand driving risks and the importance experience
plays in becoming a safe driver. Not only is Road Ready Teens increasing awareness of a tragic
epidemic, the program has also reached business objectives by enhancing the Corporation’s
reputation as a safety leader in the automotive industry and increasing its brand reputation
among parents and consumers.
Creating this program presented four challenges. First, a teen driving safety program must be
based on proven research to be effective with parents and teens. It had to be credible to be
accepted by the national safety community. The program needed to be simple and flexible
enough to apply in the home, and needed to appeal to teens to capture their interest and
attention.
The objectives of the program are to: Use a research-based approach to help raise awareness
among teens and their parents about the risks teens face as new drivers and to provide them
tools and tactics to survive the high-risk years and reinforce DaimlerChrysler’s position as a
safety leader with consumers and members of the traffic safety community.
Extensive research was used in the development and execution of Road Ready Teens. Research
began with planning sessions with teen safety experts and a thorough literature review of the
science and data behind teen traffic safety. It was clear from this research that GDL principles
were the only proven ways to reduce teen deaths. However, no state’s law includes the entire
slate of guidelines. Therefore, for parents to be best prepared, they needed to know about every
recommendation shown to protect teens.
Additional research conducted by Public Opinion Strategies (POS), an independent research
firm, included focus groups with parents of teens 15-18 years old and one-on-one interviews
with teens to determine the most effective resources, messages and tactics to employ in the
program. POS also conducted a nationally representative market survey of 400 parents of
teenagers. The survey verified the focus group findings and secured a hard news hook for the
launch of the program. The initial focus groups and survey also led to the development of the
parent’s guide and StreetWise, both considered useful tools by parents and teens.
To determine if the game was effective in teaching teens the risks of the road, the University
of Michigan Transportation Research Institute evaluated StreetWise. Pre-and-post game play
surveys and focus groups found that after playing the game, there was an increase in teens’
awareness and understanding of driving risks.
The program’s strategy was to create a credible, effective program, with an efficient
distribution system to generate the greatest awareness of the program and teen driving safety.
To build a credible program, DaimlerChrysler’s first step was to bring together safety
organizations and agencies to harness their expertise with the goal of creating a research-based
solution to tackle this tragic epidemic. Joining in the initiative were the American Automobile
Association (AAA), the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA),
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS),
the National Safety Council (NSC), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
These organizations’ leadership and years of experience on the issue enabled DaimlerChrysler
to develop a program that was grounded in proven science and enjoyed the full support and
guidance of the national safety community. In addition, DaimlerChrysler partnered with HP,
Yahoo!, AOL and WildTangent (online game developer) to provide technical expertise and to
take advantage of additional distribution channels these organizations offered. The safety and
technical partners collectively worked together to develop the parent’s guide and StreetWise.
Both the guide and game are free and are available in English and Spanish on the program’s
Web site, www.roadreadyteens.org.
To effectively and efficiently generate awareness of the program among parents and teens, the
program’s partners were encouraged to use their own unique distribution channels to promote
the program. For example, MADD distributes parent’s guides through its national network of
state and local chapters. In addition, they deliver the program’s key safety messages in two
traveling multimedia shows that are viewed by nearly a million high school students
nationwide, as well as through the distribution of CD-ROMs of the StreetWise game at selected
high schools. HP has loaded the game on three of its computer product lines. AAA has
promoted the program to its 28 million members via its publications and Web site. The NSC
distributes radio public service announcements (PSAs), while the AAMVA has helped secure
game and parent guide distribution at Department of Motor Vehicle offices in five states.
DaimlerChrysler announced the creation of the program in March 2003 and officially kicked
off the program with a major press conference in Washington, D.C. on September 30, 2003.
Key federal safety regulator, NHTSA Administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge, participated in the
launch event. The news event was enhanced by a radio and satellite media tour, an audio news
release and b-roll distribution, an exclusive with the Associated Press, and extensive print and
online media pitching.
Since the launch, the program and its partner the NSC have maintained an ongoing presence in
the media with a rapid response program that submits letters to the editor after a teen driving
crash is reported. In addition, a camera-ready article was distributed to 10,000 daily and weekly
papers, and long-lead publications are pitched periodically on various teen-driving issues.
As new elements of the program have been created, public relations outreach has continued,
such as the news release of a partnership with AOL to promote StreetWise on its Instant
Messenger site and HP’s announcement to include the game on its computer game channel. In
addition, MADD has hosted press events to promote the program and its multimedia shows in
five major markets.
The parent’s guide is available in all 4,800 Chrysler, Jeep® and Dodge dealerships, through
local market dealer media events, as well via MADD chapters across the country. In addition,
both the guide and game are being distributed at Department of Motor Vehicles (DMVs) in
five states - California, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia - to every teen applying
for a permit or license. StreetWise is currently being loaded onto HP computers, shipping this
holiday season. Twelve computer station kiosks with the game and parent’s guide travel the
auto show circuit and key technology shows with partner HP. The game was featured center
stage at the 2004 Consumer Electronic Show (CES).
The success of Road Ready Teens is a reflection of a comprehensive communications
approach, including public relations, marketing, advertising, and grassroots activities. In large
part, the success also is due to a committed group of partners that have worked together to raise
awareness of teen driving safety among parents and teens. Collectively, these efforts have
exposed millions of parents, teens and consumers to the Road Ready Teens message and
program.
A June 2004 survey conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide of 1,000 adults showed that 90 percent
said that DaimlerChrysler’s reputation was enhanced by its support of driver and passenger
safety programs like Road Ready Teens, he same survey found that 1 in 5 adults were much
more likely to consider Chrysler vehicles in the future when aware of such programs, more
than 29,000 news stories, with 240 million media impressions recorded to date: media
highlights include coverage on CNN and CNN’s Headline News, USA Today and a wire story
from the Associated Press, more than 62 million reached via advertising on Yahoo! and AOL
sites and the NSC PSA and more than 15 million drivers reached via AAA and AAMVA
partnership promotion.

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