The Challenge
While Colorado’s mountains offer unparalleled beauty enjoyed by locals and visitors alike, those same mountains create immense challenges for motorists — especially semi-truck drivers. Our state’s high elevation, steep grades, extreme weather and diverse topography can create major problems for trucks, in particular those driving along the I-70 mountain corridor. When operating an 80,000-pound, 70-foot-long vehicle, the terrain along this treacherous corridor increases the likelihood of brake failure and other issues.
In the wake of a horrific runaway truck crash on I-70 in the spring of 2019, CDOT teamed up with the Colorado State Patrol, Colorado Motor Carriers Association (CMCA) and partners in the trucking industry on a safety campaign to inform and educate in-state and inter-state trucking companies and drivers on the challenges of navigating Colorado’s mountain highways. CDOT came to CIG in need of a logo and brand identity for the new campaign, called The Mountain Rules, as well as a media event to publicly launch the initiative. The catch? We had just three weeks to deliver.
High elevation, steep grades, extreme weather and diverse topography can create major problems for trucks.
Our Solution
CIG dove in headfirst, quickly rallying our seasoned team of designers to create a visual identity for the truck safety campaign. With a name and tagline already established following industry research and focus groups conducted by CDOT – CIG’s goal was to shape a strong, recognizable brand to identify The Mountain Rules that would connect with the trucking industry.
We started with a creative brief, carefully considering the project’s needs, and using our experience in the transportation industry and relationships with stakeholders to identify themes and anticipate potential challenges. From there, our talented designers got to work and created two visual concepts for CDOT to choose from to bring the campaign to life. In a process that typically takes months, CIG designed and presented these concepts within 10 days and successfully delivered a final logo, brand guidelines and all assets necessary for CDOT to implement the visual identity in 21 days.
Simultaneously, the CIG team was hard at work planning and coordinating every detail for a media launch event to secure widespread coverage for The Mountain Rules. This included scouting locations, orchestrating multiple campaign partners and speakers, developing talking points, creating a media kit, and conducting media outreach. The event was an opportunity to bring together CDOT and its partners to introduce the campaign and brand, highlight the ongoing importance of truck safety, discuss new efforts to educate out-of-state truckers, and increase awareness of two new driver safety alert providers, Drivewyze and PrePass, among truckers and trucking companies.
The Results
The campaign launch event produced considerable media coverage locally, nationally and across trucking industry trade outlets. More than 50 stories about the campaign on digital, television and radio news outlets generated over 10 million impressions with an estimated publicity value of nearly $95,000. Social media was also buzzing around The Mountain Rules – reaching more than 850,000 online users through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Following the success of The Mountain Rules launch, CIG began work to develop an educational video to help truck drivers learn about the challenges they may face when traveling through Colorado and the steps they can take to be prepared. Since being distributed in 2020 to state and national trucking companies and associations, truck driving schools and other institutions, the video has received rave reviews from the industry. CDOT hopes that before any trucker travels through Colorado, they will view the video and be better prepared for what they might encounter.
50 stories about the campaign generated over 10 million impressions.
Questions? Please reach out to connect@cig-pr.com
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