The Workers Compensation Board (WCB) of Nova Scotia last week launched their annual campaign to raise awareness about workplace injury, but this year they’re moving away from mass media and closer to the consumer.

‘A few years into the campaign we’re starting to see injury awareness stay relatively high and continue to increase,’ says Steve MacDonald, WCB manager of social marketing. ‘As part of that, our campaign is turning more towards really getting close to the point of behaviours which is what social marketing research will tell you [is most] proactive,’ he tells MiC. The campaign was developed by Extreme Group in Halifax, with media handled by Cossette Atlantic.

In order to target people in management positions who may be in charge of policy, ads on dry-cleaning bags ask consumers if their workplace safety record is as clean as their clothes. This is a first-time use of the medium in the Maritimes, supplied by Statements Media, costing about $10,000 for 50,000 bags.

Other executions include elevator wraps inside hospitals. ‘A large number of our injuries happen in the health care sector, so this type of industry-specific media is something else that we’re doing,’ says MacDonald.

Billboards in Halifax also ask drivers to work safely, and on the highway heading out of downtown they see a thank you message. But because much of Nova Scotia is rural areas where this type of OOH media isn’t available, WCB is using a Nissan Cube to communicate in company parking lots with safety ads posted on an attached trailer. ‘They haul a trailer and on one side it says ‘please work safely today’ and on the other side it says ‘thank you,” MacDonald explains.

The campaign runs through to November, with print ads also appearing in trade publications like Atlantic Restaurant News, and a drawing contest in community newspapers for kids. ‘We want safety to be a conversation at both the boardroom table and dinner table,’ MacDonald says.