Texaco, the UK’s largest branded network of independently owned service stations, has reappointed Good Relations to raise awareness for its Corporate Responsibility Scheme to make roads a safer place for children.
The road safety campaign, which involves raising awareness for a series of films created by Aardman Animation builds on the introduction of a modern day road safety hero, ‘Hector’, the boy with a vivid imagination as he embarks on a series of road safety lessons.
The programme is significantly up weighted for 2007 and offers the animated adventures of Hector and a cast of friends brought to life by Aardman Animations in a DVD format. ‘The Peculiar Adventures of Hector’ will be available free of charge from Texaco’s network of 1,100 retail sites from 1st November as well as online.
The Hector programme, devised by Chime advertising arm, VCCP seeks to target 6 to 10 year olds and drive customer loyalty by demonstrating that Texaco understands the challenges faced by parents in teaching children the importance of road safety.
Good Relations has been reappointed to raise awareness of the campaign and build fame for Hector through focusing on the concept of ‘Edutainment’ – educating kids through fun. As part of the programme Good Relations will create partnerships with road safety experts and expert child psychologists to deliver news across broadcast news as well as parenting and children’s media. The PR programme will also target schools to encourage teachers to feature road safety lessons as part of their lesson plans and social networking groups.
Good Relations will encourage children to visit an interactive website, http://www.hectorshome.com/ where children can create their own storyboards featuring the DVD characters as well as view outtakes, character biographies and ‘the making of Hector’.
The campaign is led by Account Director, Kirstin Kaszubowska, who says. “We are delighted to be working with Texaco for the second year on their road safety campaign. We look forward to delivering on the successes of the previous year”.
Andrew Cox Manager Area Marketing Support Europe for Texaco said, “The success of Texaco’s introduction of Hector last year provided us with a strong platform to speak to our customers, predominately the parents of small children. Through partnering with Aardman to create engaging and entertaining animation we hope to teach children the importance of road safety and play a part in making the roads a safer place.”
The Hector adventure series was originally compiled with advice from the Department for Transport and was introduced through a series of books in 2006 to develop an emotional connection with its customers, predominately parents of young children.
About Hector DVD’s
Five stories available include:
- Hector the hairy, scary tarantula’s tentacle
- Hector the talking telepathic helmet
- Hector and the cross, cross-eyed zebra
- Hector and the gang of ghastly, ghostly ghosts
- Hector and the bewitchingly strange road signs
