Sync Watch: Queensland acts team with Spotify for road safety campaign

Ten Queensland acts have donated their tunes to a Spotify campaign addressing road safety outside schools.

It alerts drivers they are five kilometres from a school zone and to slow down.

The Slow Down Songs campaign on behalf of the Australian Road Safety Foundation (ARSF) sees Spotify insert the songs, edited to include the safety message, into the personalised playlists of its Queensland freemium users.

With schools re-opening for the year, the streaming service will geotarget drivers within five kilometres of school zones.

The songs begin normally before slowing down to 10% of their original speed, playing the message, and then speed up to finish.

The campaign also has a video element, with the execution below featuring Caitlyn Shadbolt’s ‘My Breakup Anthem’.

Other artists featured by Spotify in the campaign include were Jungle Giants, Shag Rock, Open Season, Sue Ray, Pat Tierney, Bobby Alu, Leanne Tennant, Asha Jeffries and Tijuana Cartel.

“The Jungle Giants don’t normally get involved in something like this,” the band’s manager Stu McCulloch told TMN. “But it’s a good cause and the other people in the campaign were good people.”

The Jungle Giants, who donated their song ‘Used To Be Love’, have 193,000 Spotify followers and 1.6 million monthly listeners.

Shadbolt offered ‘My Breakup Anthem’. “It’s my most popular song, so it’ll have the best response from people who hear it.

“I had to get involved in the campaign. It’s a creative way to get the message across, and statistics show people don’t slow down in school areas.”

Shag Rock, with 269,954 monthly listeners on Spotify, offered ‘Stacey’ from their first album, with singer and guitarist, Alex Wilson, saying,: “People drive like maniacs”

Road trauma is the number one killer of children aged 14 and under, ARSF CEO and founder, Russell White, said.

He added: “People don’t realise that speeding, even a few kilometres over the limit in a school zone can be the difference between life and death so we’re tackling the casual attitude towards speed in school zones to prevent the fatal or serious injury of our children.”

If the pilot proves a success, White says it will be rolled out nationally.

The campaign was created by Brisbane creative agency Brother & Co, which worked with Spotify to execute  it.