The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2024
Yamaha faked report cards to stop bikes being gifted to kids
22,000 underage-rider accidents a year, yet bikes are still gifted for good grades — Yamaha replaced the report card with accident stats at reward season.
Yamaha Indonesia
The solution
Indonesia is the world's third-largest motorcycle market — around 137.35 million units with 85% of households owning one — yet many motorcycles are ridden by underage children, often with parental consent: over 22,000 accidents involving underage riders were reported in 2023. Motorcycles are even gifted to children as rewards for academic success.
Rather than another statistics-driven safety PSA, Yamaha and FCN Creative – Rovers tapped a cultural insight: Indonesian parents' deep-rooted fear of the supernatural. Horror-themed videos and podcasts set up the message that the real threat isn't ghosts — it's on the road. Then the campaign intercepted the decision moment: during graduation season, when bikes are bought as rewards, 'The Scariest Report' — a twist on the annual report card — carried the underage-riding accident statistics and a QR code to Yamaha's safety site, reinforced by flyers and posters in schools and neighborhoods.
The campaign won Gold in Media at Citra Pariwara 2024. Following a successful pilot in several schools across Jabodetabek, Yamaha planned a national expansion.
Why it worked
- The message is placed at the decision moment — the report card is the reward moment — not in the media schedule, so it intercepts the purchase before it happens.
- It borrows the audience's existing irrational fear as an attention hook, then redirects it to the real, near-term risk — reframing parental indifference into an entry point.
- Horror-genre content is inherently shareable, so the message spreads without paid reach.
What can be applied
To change a risky habit, don't broadcast the risk — intercept the exact moment the habit is decided, and borrow the audience's existing fears to make the real threat vivid.
Aftermath
The Scariest Report won Gold in Media at Citra Pariwara 2024. After a successful pilot in schools across Jabodetabek, Yamaha planned to extend the initiative nationwide. No accident-rate or behavior-change metrics have been published.
Sources
- Yamaha Indonesia and FCN Creative-Rovers address the crisis of underage motorcycle riding
- FCN Creative takes Creative Agency of the Year and Dentsu Creative named Digital Agency of the Year at 2024 Citra Pariwara Awards
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