Request ID: FOI-1971-2122 Date published: 30 December 2021
You asked
Please can you tell me
1. The cost paid to any advertising agency and/or other art for the origination, development and production of the "See your side" advert (the one involving a collision between a cyclist and a car).
2. The amount of media spend in broadcasting this advert, including and if possible separated by television, radio, social media, other media.
Thank you.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-1971-2122/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 1 December 2021 asking for information about the "See your side" advert.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.
The ‘See their Side’ campaign was developed following new research commissioned by TfL, and engagement with various stakeholder organisations. The independent research commissioned by TfL involved qualitative research with psychologists, police, road safety managers and public relations professionals, as well as cultural analysis on thousands of sources of literature, social and traditional media, and a review of more than 100 adverts over 20 years. The research found that individually, culturally and as a society, we tend to ignore road danger at best, but we also accept it and normalise it – and importantly, believe it is inevitable. Decades of road safety advertising have largely failed to change behaviour for the better among road users, because risky behaviours are an expression of the values and beliefs people hold about acceptable road use. The proposal to tackle the culture of road use was supported by stakeholders and TfL sought feedback from stakeholders at two specific phases of campaign development, including a draft script. TfL has been open and transparent with stakeholder organisations and sought to deliver the ‘See their Side’ campaign with their support. TfL will continue to listen to feedback and improve engagement processes.
TfL maintains that it cannot achieve Vision Zero on its own and continues to be committed to engaging fully with partners in the development and delivery of initiatives that seek to reduce road danger on London’s streets.
With regards to the specific questions you asked:
The cost paid to any advertising agency and/or other art for the origination, development and production of the "See your side" advert (the one involving a collision between a cyclist and a car).
For this work VCCP received £383,119.39. This covered production costs for the TV advertising and photography for our outdoor poster campaign and some creative market research costs. A large proportion of these costs is passed through to sub-contractors and is not retained by VCCP.
2. The amount of media spend in broadcasting this advert, including and if possible separated by television, radio, social media, other media. £548,677.92 was the planned spend in total. This is the planned cost and final costs may reduce slightly. Of the £548,677.92, £400k was planned for Audio Visual (AV), £98,677.92 was planned for poster advertising and £50k for cinema. When we paused the campaign we transferred the media value to another Road Danger Reduction campaign which means our media spend on the campaign was reduced to £318,702. This includes £281,040 on AV which includes lost airtime and penalties for changing to a different TV advert, £37,662 on poster advertising and £0 for cinema.
If this is not the information you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
