In 2018, Ford launched Share The Road, a campaign to create harmony and increase safety between cyclists and drivers on the road.

With 2,000 fatal collisions taking place with cyclists each year in Europe, Ford wanted to attract mainstream media attention, spark conversations and make headlines to increase awareness of the importance of road safety and sharing the road.

H&K and Ogilivy worked to identify a hook that could help foster understanding between cyclists and drivers while achieving cut through with media and land the Share The Road message. The team found lack of communication between cyclists and drivers as a key factor to frayed tempers, conflicts, near misses and accidents on the road.

A common language would help ease tensions and allow cyclists to communicate safely. This led us to investigate the benefits of Emojis, a universally understood language and quick enabler of emotions allowing instant recognition.

Emojis have already revolutionised how people interact, now it was time road users benefit. The team worked with a linguist to create a bespoke first of its kind emoji jacket for cyclists that alerts road users of the cyclists’ emotions and intentions. The familiar faces allow the cyclist to safely display hazards, happiness, sadness and to indicate.

The Emoji Jacket generated 648 earned media stories across the world, with an organic social reach of 40.9m and our YouTube video received 150,000 organic views. Coverage appeared in BBC, Metro, Ansa.it, Libero.it, Marca, 20 Minutos, L’Usine Nouvelle, MSN to name a few.