Educating Hispanic Parents about Child Passenger Safety

Client: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

Child Passenger Safety Week

Each September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sponsors Child Passenger Safety Week to offer parents and caregivers the resources they need to select and properly use the right car seat for their children based on their age and size. The challenge NHTSA faced was reaching Hispanic parents and caregivers with this information in ways that would result in the intended call to action.

A team of TMNcorp staff worked with NHTSA to develop Spanish-language resources with culturally-appropriate messages that resonated with Hispanic caregivers by communicating their role of protecting the future milestones of their children. Resources included:

  • A series of three posters designed to promote Child Passenger Safety Week and related events to Spanish-speaking audiences.
  • An instructional flyer highlighting NHTSA’s car seat recommendations based on a child’s age and size.

Outreach strategies were developed to ensure these materials reached Hispanic parents and caregivers. The team reached out to Hispanic media outlets, bloggers, and organizations serving the demographic to promote Child Passenger Safety Week and share resources that would encourage Hispanics parents to participate in this important event. A drop-in article and blog post included statistics and a clear call to action encouraging the target audience to take control of their children’s safety. All materials also featured several Spanish-language resources available to parents on NHTSA’s Child Passenger Safety Week website.

In a matter of a few weeks, TMN’s outreach efforts garnered 2.8 million media impressions in 28 Hispanic media outlets.  In addition, both Telemundo and Univision featured stories about Child Passenger Safety Week on their evening news broadcasts.

TMN’s online outreach strategy also proved successful. Seventeen blogs featured Child Passenger Safety Week and 33 social media users shared information about this important observance with more than 226,000 Facebook and Twitter followers.

TMN continues to work with NHTSA to provide effective strategies for reaching Hispanics on child passenger safety and other public safety issues.

Campaign materials can be downloaded from www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov.

Materials shown: posters, fliers and e-blast. Other materials developed: drop-in articles, blog post and blast email to community-based organizations. 

Nhora BarreraEducating Hispanic Parents about Child Passenger Safety