Doğuş Otomotiv shapes the future with its focus on sustainability and carries out its operations with a sense of responsibility towards its stakeholders and society. Setting out with the goal of creating a long term cultural transformation in society regarding traffic safety, the Company realized a project in 2004 that would add value to social development and leave a mark for posterity through the “Traffic is Life!” project.
As the longest lasting social responsibility project of the automotive industry, Traffic is Life! platform has been carrying out awareness raising activities that would change the behaviour and habits of individuals of all age groups in traffic and create social awareness targeting different groups. The platform believes a positive cultural transformation regarding traffic will create a favourable impact in every area of life and create liveable cities and a liveable future.
Young people who are the future of society are the most important agents who would be able to change traffic culture positively. “Traffic Safety Remote Education” was launched in order to protect youths against traffic accidents and to inform them about traffic safety. So far, it has reached more than 25,000 students at 18 universities. The remote education which has been included among the “Elective Course” category by the Higher Education Board of Turkey (YÖK) is the first social responsibility project that has entered the university SCORM system with its traffic safety content.
“Child Safety in Traffic” project launched in 2016 since the 5-14 year old group of children are the most vulnerable in road accidents and child safety in traffic is a vitally important issue for Turkey continued to be the centrepiece of the “Traffic is Life!” platform in 2017. Many informative, educational and promotional events in various media channels were organized throughout the year in order to raise awareness about child safety in cars and the traffic.
Five viral informative films on “Mother and Child Safety in Traffic” in particular were
prepared by the brand spokesperson Prof. Üstün Dökmen. The films were broadcast on social media
channels and were followed by 5 million people.
Moreover, a series of training programs on “Child and Foetus Safety in Traffic” was provided by Prof. Serpil Acar and Prof. Memiş Acar from Loughborough University, who have done important research on pregnant women in vehicles and child safety, in their capacity as consultants for the project. The target group of the training were training nurses and staff at the offices of Hospital General Secretaries at Zeynep Kamil Hospital, Ümraniye Research Hospital and İstanbul Anatolian State Hospitals Union which are among health institutions with the highest number of child births. The “Traffic is Life!” platform has provided training to 310 healthcare staff so far. The staff who received the training were given pre and post training examinations to test their level of knowledge and the number of pregnant women they reached was followed up.
Also through the contributions of Prof. Serpil Acar and Prof. Memiş Acar, 3 video films made specifically with the theme of “Mother and Child Safety in Vehicles” reached a total of 365,116 people over Uzman TV and the social media.
In May, when the traffic week is organized, Traffic is Life! platform consultant Prof. Üstün Dökmen offered advice to mothers on issues including the importance of child safety seat in vehicles as well as child safety in cars during a seminar attended by mother-child bloggers Merve Öztürk and Burçin Kaya and their followers. In the seminar where a total of 60 mothers were present, questions asked by mothers joining the event over the internet were answered through a live broadcast over Facebook.
Prof. Üstün Dökmen who was host to Özlem Denizmen’s program on Star TV entitled “Kadınca”, explained the “Child Safety in Traffic” project, and also provided information on mother-child safety in vehicles and the importance of the use of child safety seat by joining the live broadcast of Radio Traffic program in December.
As was done in 2016, events encouraging the use of child safety seats in vehicles were organized in 2017. Throughout the year, free of charge child safety seats were provided to those renting cars at the İstanbul, İzmir and Ankara offices of the Central Rent a Car company with the support of our business partner company Itamex. More than 300 people renting cars made use of this opportunity. Child safety seat stands were set up at the Maslak, Bursa and Avek showrooms of Doğuş Oto where information was provided about child safety seats to interested parents.
In 2017, nearly 80,000 people who bought Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles were provided information pamphlets along with their delivery files about the safety of pregnant women and children in vehicles.
Social media was actively used during the year in order to reach as large a group as possible on issues like child safety in traffic and traffic safety. As of December 2017, Traffic is Life! platform’s Facebook account had 112,000 followers. Through regular content sharing, every section of society was provided informative/educational benefit on traffic safety.
3 million people were reached in November 2017 through 3 video films that started to be broadcast with the Pictoos character created by Varol Yaşaroğlu with a view to teaching and reminding viewers about traffic rules in an entertaining way. Films and further communication will continue in 2018.
Gençler için Trafik Hayattır!
The “Public Awareness Message” contest organized in 2016 with a view to leaving a mark for posterity with young people and to include them in the issue of traffic safety was widely acclaimed as the first contest to be held in Turkey about traffic safety. The owner of the winning project, “Safety is the Future”, was offered the opportunity to re-shoot the video in a professional manner in 2016. Similarly, “Respect in Traffic Saves Lives”, the winner of the second place was also re-shot professionally in 2017 under the direction of the screenwriter Zeynep Dilara Aksoy. The film was produced by Böcek Productions who were on the jury of the Public Awareness Message contest. Both public awareness films and the Koltron cartoon film were broadcast a total of 5,200 times on various TV channels between June and December 2017.
Following the “Public Awareness Message” contest, Traffic is Life! platform was once again in the limelight in 2017 by organizing Turkey’s first jingle contest on traffic safety aiming to reach people in traffic over the radio. 568 people applied to the contest where Nil Karaibrahimgil was the head of the jury. The jingle by the winner of the contest Başak Gürcan that was sung together with Nil Karaibrahimgil was later developed into a radio spot and broadcast total of 2,000 times on the radios free of charge during June-July. As a result of social media communication and cooperation with social media celebrities, 16 million hits during and 5 million hits after the jingle contest were received. Moreover, special features were made in publications to include Mediacat, Marketing Türkiye, Hürriyet Kelebek and Habertürk.
Traffic is life! for society
HOP! mobile app was introduced in 2017 by Traffic is Life! platform aiming to create sustainable projects that would touch all sections of society in order to provide the safety of bicycle riders in traffic in particular and create awareness on this issue in general. The app enabling cyclists to be noticed in traffic was first promoted during the 19th of May Bicycle Festival organized by Kadıköy Municipality in İstanbul. Traffic is Life! projects and the HOP! mobile app were introduced during the WRI Liveable Cities Symposium and Road Safety course of Bilgi University. It was also offered to a large number of cycling enthusiasts through the stand road set up in at the Karşıyaka, İzmir Cycling Festival in September. In 2017, 5,000 people downloaded the app. Improvements in the app will continue in 2018.
The course content of the Traffic Safety remote education offered as an elective course in 18 universities to include the Bilgi University and İstanbul Technical University was upgraded through the collaboration of ITU. Also, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, driver candidates -who would be taking the driving licence test over the Facebook Chat Bot app a first implementation on social media in the area of social responsibility- were given the opportunity to test themselves and measure their knowledge based on previous year’s test questions. Over 100,000 participants benefited from the app as of December 2017.
Having received numerous awards in previous years, Traffic is Life! platform continued to add new ones to its achievements in 2017 also. “Traffic is Life!” platform was cited among the top ten projects by the Capital magazine in the best Corporate Social Responsibility survey. While the “Child Safety in Vehicles” project was given the Golden Compass award by the Public Relations Association of Turkey, the HOP! application developed for cyclists’ safety in traffic was chosen as the best project in the “Sustainable Cities and Habitats” category by the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey and the Geneva based Sustainable Development Academy. It was also selected as the social responsibility project of the year in the Gladiators of the Year Awards in 2017 organized by Automotive Distributors in the area of Communication and Sales.
In 2018, interactive projects based on target groups will be organized within the framework of the Traffic is Life! platform contributing to the creation of a positive traffic culture in every section of society.
