ABOUT THE PRO JECT
Shwaiat Wa3i was a strategic communications and behavior-change initiative developed for Saudi Public Security under the Saudi Ministry of Interior as part of Target Point’s multidisciplinary team.
The initiative addressed a wider road-safety challenge involving risky driving behaviors among young audiences. Rather than starting with another awareness campaign, the team examined why repeated safety messages were not creating enough behavioral change.
Audience understanding, media analysis, and communication diagnosis became the foundation for an integrated approach combining entertainment-led content, digital and social media, PR, nationwide awareness communication, community engagement, and sustained campaign activity.
THE CHALLENGE
WHEN AWARENESS EXISTS, BUT BEHAVIOR DOESN’T CHANGE
Road-safety communication was already highly active. Government bodies, media, private organizations, and public campaigns had repeatedly communicated the risks and consequences of dangerous driving.
Yet risky behaviors continued.
That changed the nature of the challenge. The question was no longer simply how to create more awareness, but why existing awareness was not translating into behavioral change.
The team needed to understand how young audiences consumed media, what captured their attention, which communication approaches they resisted, and how public-safety communication could become more relevant to their everyday world.
Key challenges included:
Moving beyond one-way warnings, fear, and preaching
Reaching young audiences through the channels they actually used
Making communication culturally relevant without losing public-safety authority
Turning passive exposure into engagement and participation
Creating continuity beyond a short campaign burst
OUR Strategic APPROACH
DESIGNING FOR BEHAVIOR CHANGE, NOT JUST AWARENESS
The strategy began by questioning why repeated road-safety communication was not creating enough behavioral change. We examined the communication model itself how messages were being delivered, how young audiences consumed media, what captured their attention, and where existing approaches were losing relevance.
The findings led to a shift from one-way awareness toward a communication model built around relevance, participation, community, and sustained influence.
COMMUNICATION DIRECTION
FROM MESSAGES TO CONVERSATIONS
The communication direction was built around one principle: do not speak to the audience enter their world. Instead of relying on repeated warnings, fear, or authority-led messaging, the initiative adopted a more relevant and participatory tone designed to feel closer to how young audiences consumed media, humor, entertainment, and everyday conversation.
This shift influenced both message and format. Communication moved from isolated awareness pieces toward a connected system combining entertainment-led content, digital and social media, nationwide campaign communication, PR, and community participation. Each touchpoint had a different role, but all were designed to support the same behavioral objective attract attention, challenge risky social norms, make consequences relevant, encourage participation, and sustain the conversation over time.
INTEGRATED
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
A connected communications system was developed to move the initiative beyond isolated awareness messages and create a more sustained relationship with the audience.
Core elements included:
Entertainment-led content to enter the audience’s world and capture attention
Behavior-reframing communication to challenge the social appeal of risky driving
Nationwide awareness messaging to make consequences visible and relevant
Digital & social engagement to create participation rather than passive exposure
Community-building mechanisms to turn audiences into contributors and advocates
PR and supporting media activity to extend reach and credibility
Sustained communication to maintain momentum beyond the initial campaign burst
The system was structured around five connected phases:
PULL → PUSH → REMIND → ENGAGE → RETAIN
Final Outcome
A BEHAVIOR-CHANGE PLATFORM, NOT JUST AN AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Shwaiat Wa3i reframed the assignment from a traditional road-safety campaign into a broader communication system designed around relevance, participation, and continuity.
The work connected audience understanding, media behavior, communication diagnosis, and strategic planning into one integrated framework. Entertainment-led content attracted attention, broader campaign communication reinforced consequences, and community engagement created opportunities for participation and sustained dialogue.
The campaign was the visible output. The deeper outcome was a communication model designed to move from messages to conversations, target audiences to communities, and touchpoints to engagement.
THE SOLUTION WASN’T ANOTHER MESSAGE. IT WAS A DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION MODEL.
