The ‘Protect Little Riders’ campaign has been widely acclaimed for its crucial message about child safety on motorcycles. Who thought of this idea, what was the initial inspiration for creating this campaign, and how did the collaboration between Lowe Lintas and TVS Motor Company come about?
SUBRAMANYESWAR S: New ideas are sometimes found in the most obvious things where few others bother to look. The amazing thought of protecting the little riders came from Sonali Khanna, one of our business leaders. It’s an obvious fact that we never saw until she expressed it so simply. We were instinctively enthused by the idea, and dug deep to find numerical and human data to see a business rationale before we went to TVS.
In parallel, we also reached out to some helmet makers to get a prototype done because of the value in learning it gives us to execute than the code per se.
With all the homework that we had done for this just cause, we went and met our client Mr. Aniruddha Haldar, Head of Marketing at TVS Motor Company. When we presented to him our idea, we almost immediately heard his heart whispering “That’s the one!” It helped that TVS has been a big champion of road safety for many years with their RIDE4SAFETY initiative. Haldar believed that his company that was always about moving metal has now got a new opportunity to make the metal move the hearts and minds of people. That inspiring conviction signalled the birth of a new genuine purpose for brand TVS.
Steve Jobs once famously said, “Ideas are worth nothing unless executed.” An idea and its execution are therefore two inseparable factors. As much as we have been the cause of the idea at Lowe Lintas through Sonali and team, TVS through Haldar and team has been the effect without which this ground-breaking idea wouldn’t have seen the light.
ANIRUDDHA HALDAR: The initial idea for the ‘Protect Little Riders’ campaign was conceived by Ms. Sonali Khanna of Lowe Lintas. As a communication expert, and partner of TVS, she noticed that, despite many successful initiatives promoting helmet use, children—specifically young pillion riders—were often overlooked. This observation highlighted a significant gap in safety practices, particularly in light of the alarming statistic that 14,000 pillion riders die annually in India, 7,800 of whom are children, according to a 2021 report from India’s Ministry of Transport. The campaign was further reinforced by a 2022 government regulation mandating helmets for children. This insight spurred the collaboration between Lowe Lintas and TVS Motor Company to create a campaign that would address this critical issue.
Since motorcycles are the most common mode of transportation in India, what challenges did you face when trying to raise awareness among parents and drivers about the importance of children wearing helmets? How did you address these challenges in the campaign?
SUBRAMANYESWAR: For more than half of Indian households a 2-wheeler is their primary vehicle. And 80% of children who find themselves travelling on these 2-wheelers do not wear helmets. Sadly, India sees 1.56 million motorcycle fatalities annually, with over 14,000 pillion rider deaths. Shockingly, 7800 of those pillions are innocent children (Source: Govt of India Ministry of Transport Road Accident Report 2021).
In many of our earlier researches with consumers of 2-wheelers across India, we found parents passionately speaking about their dreams for children in their families and some of them even citing how their 2-wheeler supports them by transporting children for classes and various other activities conveniently and faster. But none have ever mentioned about the need for helmets or even the thought of having one despite the rugged Indian road conditions and clumsy traffic.
Our new ‘protect little riders’ initiative drove us this time to get under the skin of the audience to discover the barriers/tensions that prevented or haven’t made parents so far explore the usage of safety gear for their children while riding.
To our surprise, we found that
1. Culturally in India, there exists a misconception that only the rider needs a helmet, and the pillion whoever it is doesn’t as they are at the back.
2. Parents live under an illusion that as long as the vehicle is in good control and they ride safely, no harm can befall their children as pillion. Some even ignorantly or unwittingly said that in-between the ride they even turn their heads and look at the child if he/she is safe.
3. Many parents said that as they mostly travel short distances with children, they believe that the shorter proximity lowers the risk of any accident.
4. Most of the parents have never heard or even seen helmets made for children on 2-wheelers. The ones who had known about them and tried to find one, didn’t get the right size or simply not available.
As Nelson Mandela had said, there can no better revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children. The parents’ mindset led us to a very sharp insight – when parents ride with their children, they themselves wear helmets for safety, but the cognitive delusion that their children are safe in their care leads them to not consider helmets for their children. This value-action gap leaves millions of children vulnerable to risk as children are more prone to serious injuries in the absence of road-safety gear in accidents.
As one of India’s leading 2-wheeler manufacturers, TVS wanted to bring out the importance of road safety gear especially for children and developed a line of helmets in various sizes/fits for every age group of children in collaboration with the leading helmet manufacturer Vega.
However, it was imperative that the campaign needed to make the consumers realise the magnitude of the judgement error they were making and just a humble public service announcement would not cut it. If you got a head, you need a helmet. That’s it.
ANIRUDDHA: Despite motorcycles being the most common mode of transportation in India, raising awareness among parents and drivers about the importance of children wearing helmets posed several challenges. The core challenge lay in the parents’ mindset, as many did not recognize the need for independent protective gear for their children. Through focus group discussions and interviews with parents, three key reasons for this oversight emerged:
First, many parents experienced a “blind spot” and didn’t realize that, after infancy, children needed their own helmets as pillion riders. Second, there was a sense of “care invincibility,” with many parents believing that their personal care would be enough to protect their children while riding. Third, a lack of options, or awareness of available options, contributed to the problem, as many parents did not know where to find helmets for children.
To address these challenges, the campaign focused on raising awareness of this blind spot. TVS Motor Company developed a range of high-quality helmets specifically designed for children, offering parents a practical solution. The campaign used strong messaging, such as “Unparents” and “Spot the Mistake,” to strike at the core of the issue. Ground outreach efforts were also made in schools, and online pledges were used to build momentum around the cause. The campaign not only increased awareness of the need for child helmets but also informed parents of the availability of these helmets, including those designed by TVS. Additionally, in states where purchasing a motorcycle requires including a helmet, TVS gave consumers the option to select a child’s helmet as part of the package.
‘Protect Little Riders’ has received several significant accolades, such as the FICCI Road Safety Award and the INDIAA Award 2024. What impact have you seen in the community and in the behavior of motorcyclists since the launch of the campaign?
SUBRAMANYESWAR: The campaign was extremely well received by the audience, both online and offline.
1. Within two weeks of the campaign launch, it garnered over 3 million views on YouTube. The films had a VTR of over 43% against industry benchmark of 10-15% indicating that a higher number of viewers watched the film till the end. With over 80 unpaid mentions, the films garnered earned PR for its efforts in raising awareness to a vital road safety issue.
2. Collaborations with influencers recorded 8 Lakh+ unique engagements.
3. The microsite developed as an extension of the campaign recorded over 6 lakh unique sessions indicating consumer interest in knowing more about the campaign message.
4. Various field teams also reported an increase in enquiries for kids’ helmets across TVS dealerships nationally. Free helmets were distributed with every TVS 2-wheeler purchase. The sales of TVS helmets for kids, doubled in the 3 months post the campaign launch.
5. Over 36,480 people have taken the pledge on the brand website, to protect little riders.
While deep-rooted cultural behaviours cannot be changed overnight, the message being acknowledged and shared widely amongst parents and people in general is a huge win.
In terms of creativity and strategy, what elements do you consider were key to capturing the public’s attention and effectively conveying such an important message?
SUBRAMANYESWAR: Children not wearing helmets on two-wheelers is a truly peculiar issue. And perhaps the biggest blind spot on Indian roads, today. It’s a mistake happening on every street, every day – in broad daylight – yet no one is ‘seeing’ it.
On one hand, every parent wants to do so much for his or her child – yet the overwhelming population forgets to give helmets to their children. The creative strategy conceptualised and brought alive brilliantly by one of our top creative leaders Sarvesh Raikar and his team, therefore, was to actually bring to life this omnipresent, mind-boggling irony. The same parents who would even risk their lives to protect their offsprings, are wearing helmets themselves without providing one to their little ones.
The insight was brought to life through two hard-hitting content pieces – a film called #TheUnParents and a social experiment called #SpotTheMistake.
Looking towards the future, what additional steps are you considering to reinforce child road safety in India? Are there any plans to extend the campaign or launch similar initiatives in other markets?
SUBRAMANYESWAR: We are very committed to making a change towards the cause of child safety on the roads of India. While we have just launched our efforts with TVS, we are looking at this as a long-term initiative as it takes collective efforts to make a behaviour change of this nature.
We are in talks with several brands to take forward this cause to give it the attention that is much needed.
We are also looking at launching special efforts on the upcoming Children’s day to secure the future of the new generation on the roads of India.
ANIRUDDHA: We are committed to making Change happen. There would be consistent on-going efforts to drive awareness on this.