The Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) hooked up with Exclaim! Media to get up close and in your face with its most job safety message-resistant and at-risk demo: dudes. ‘We say young males because they tend to be the ones that act first and think later. The girls are a little bit more conscious and the boys will just kind of go for it. It’s just more of a truism for their gender,’ says Laura Seaton, account director at Toronto-based Draftfcb, which developed the campaign and media buy.

To really break through, Ontario youth are encouraged to visit Prevent-It.ca, the info website for the WSIB, during a summer concert series put on by the Exclaim! Media events division. The site will be promoted during about 20 concerts across the province from indie bands like Dead and Divine, Straight Reads the Line, and Brighter Brightest, that Exclaim! organizers believe connect with the WSIB’s target young male demo. Online goodies are also being offered as a further site-visit lure: the program includes the distribution of download cards featuring free tracks by the bands ‘courtesy of the folks at Prevent-It.ca‘ and a chance to win a loaded Macbook Pro that ties in with the live events. While on the site, visitors can watch videos, view print ads or just read information about their rights and how to prevent accidents in the workplace.

The shows are running until the end of August throughout Ontario’s major and secondary markets, from Thunder Bay to Windsor and Toronto to Belleville. Messaging will be displayed at the side of the stage during concerts, on concert sponsorship banners and at the CNE. The program also includes related regional print and online advertising, a dedicated prevent-it.exclaim.ca microsite and promotion from each band through their social networks and special at-event branding.