National Transport Insurance

THE BRIEF

Gain media exposure of the findings of an annual national research report that looks at road safety for Australian truck drivers. 

Every year, Australia’s largest transport and logistics insurer, National Transport Insurance (NTI), seeks PR activity for the release of a report from the National Traffic Research Accident Centre (NTARC), a research facility which it wholly funds.  

The brief forms part of Adoni Media’s PR planning for NTI, which is an ongoing client.  

THE RESULTS

 In 2019, NTI sought, for the first time, publicity for its NTARC report. To give journalists a reason to run the story, Adoni Media timed the media launch to coincide with the start of the Easter long weekend, a typically “bad” time for the road toll, and a cyclical story covered every year for which journalists are always seeking a new angle.  

We organised for a media event to take place at The Australian Trucking Association’s National Trucking Conference in Perth. This gave journalists another timely reason to run the story but also provided access to the more than 400 industry experts and truck drivers who were at the event. For print and television journalists, it also provided a visual backdrop for interviews and opportunities for vision to be filmed and photographs to be taken.  

In addition to inviting journalists to watch the presentation of the findings by the report’s author, Adoni Media hosted a press conference. As part of the “press pack,” our PR specialists, who are former journalists, interviewed the NTARC report author, The Australian Trucking Association Chair and two truck drivers. We packaged the best of these interview “grabs” into a Video News Release (VNR), and provided this, as well as dash cam footage, to news stations around the country. The grabs, and report findings, were localised to each State to ensure stories were relevant to media outlets. 

The launch achieved coverage across mainstream and industry publications online and in print, television news and radio news and programs.  

The campaign didn’t stop there. We worked our way through the report and identified other angles journalists might be interested in, distributing media releases at key times throughout the year. These stories included targeting mainstream media (specifically car drivers) and industry media (to reach truck drivers). Strategic communications and planning meant education could be spread across different markets to raise awareness of the report findings, thereby helping to improve driver behaviour and road safety for all road users.  

On the back of the success of this launch, Adoni Media has successfully held press conferences and provided VNRs for the release of all NTARC reports since.