Our No More Flowers campaign, in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), is one of the most poignant and impactful projects we have delivered.  

Speeding kills or injures 137 people every week in the United Kingdom, and Greater Manchester records an uplift in speeding casualties each July, while 154 young people were killed or seriously injured between 2021 and 2023 because of speeding.

Our goal here was simple: to produce a clear and impactful campaign that increased awareness of speeding and its catastrophic dangers – and most importantly, drive the numbers of accidents and fatalities down.

At the outset of the project, our Strategy, Creative, and Communications teams collaborated to explore the most impactful ways of encouraging conversations around the dangers of speeding. Using existing insight and intelligence, our teams discussed ways to drive awareness of causing fatalities, as well other less life-threatening risks and consequences, such as fines, losing your license or even being imprisoned for dangerous driving.

Together, we created No More Flowers, an instantly recognisable, hard-hitting campaign inspired by the all too common and devastatingly tragic sight of flowers at the scene of a road traffic accident.

We appealed directly to families and loved ones – such as referencing “sons and daughters” - warning them of the potential tragic consequences of speeding and the punishments attached. We understood the need to emphasise the devastating impact of speeding in a clear, direct and emotive manner, raising crucial awareness of the very real and all-too-common heartbreaking after effects.

Our creative combined the strikingly simple but familiar imagery of flowers at roadsides with direct and emotive straplines. This ensured a versatile and flexible campaign that launched across strategic platforms across Greater Manchester, including high-traffic area billboards and social media advertisements targeted towards at-risk age-groups. We also included digital billboards which featured animations of the flowers decaying over time, to further demonstrate the sense of loss and grief associated with losing a loved one.

The daughter of a man killed by a speeding driver gave her support to the campaign launch, which featured an emotive public activation containing 154 flowers in a large floral display, to represent each of the young people killed or seriously injured between 2021 and 2023 due to speeding.

Mark Armstrong, 59, was fatally struck by a vehicle while walking in Greater Manchester in 2021, and his daughter Joanne told BBC News she hoped parents would see the display and the wider No More Flowers campaign and “make their children aware” of the dangers of speeding.

The activation achieved widespread media coverage, with Inspector Mike Parker from Greater Manchester Police also backing No More Flowers.

Inspector Parker said: “As part of the Safer Roads Greater Manchester Partnership, Greater Manchester Police is supporting the No More Flowers campaign. 

“Speed limits are enforced for a reason; to keep people safe. The consequences of speeding can be devasting and causes heartbreak for families. 

“We want people in Greater Manchester to feel safe going about their day-to-day lives while using our roads.”

“We’re incredibly proud of our No More Flowers campaign in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester.

“Throughout the project, we wanted to increase conversations and awareness of the life-changing consequences that can result from speeding.

“With a simple yet striking visual of flowers tied to a lamppost, No More Flowers did this with great impact – delivering highly emotional symbolism that would resonate with families, friends and loved ones.”