Media Campaign — Boulder, Colorado

VISION ZERO SUCCESS STORY — COMMUNICATIONS & OUTREACH

Background 

In 2017, the City of Boulder developed and 

implemented a robust communication and 

outreach program, called “Heads Up Boulder1,” 

to continue its goal of eliminating all serious traffic 

crashes involving all modes of transportation. 

The City also aimed to increase Vision Zero 

awareness and enhance public involvement. 

The City promoted Vision Zero safety education 

campaigns across multiple social media 

platforms and at community events. The 

communication ranged from traditional outlets 

(high visibility bus ads and television interviews) 

to social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, and 

Snapchat). 

“Heads Up Boulder” aimed to build greater 

awareness of traffic safety citywide and for all 

users of the transportation system. In addition 

the campaign focused on 18-24 year olds. This 

population is the age group involved in the most 

crashes. The City developed tailored outreach 

programs to reach this demographic. For 

instance, due to the popularity of the Snapchat 

mobile application platform with this target 

audience, the City developed ads specifically for 

the platform. 

The City also partnered with local advocacy 

groups and the University of Colorado Boulder 

to increase the influence of the campaigns, as 

many of the crashes involving 18-24 year old 

persons occurred near the University. 

1 https://bouldercolorado.gov/transportation/safe-streets-headsup-campaign

Key Successes

Most popular Vision Zero-related 

Facebook post outcomes: 

4,332 reached compared to 

general posts reaching an average of 909 

individuals.

1,700 views compared to general 

videos being viewed only 317 times on 

average.

10,400 impressions 

on Twitter, higher than the average of 3,000 

impressions for a general post.

1,375 video views on Twitter, 

more than three times the average of 422 

views.

Snapchat ad campaign outcomes:

632,168 paid impressions,

that is the ad reached the user on a mobile 

device.

33,448 video views

for at least two seconds. 

17,150 video views 

for at least half of the ten-second video.

8,974 video views

for the entire video.

3,314 swipe ups, meaning the user 

actively engaged with the ad and viewed the 

accompanying “Heads Up Boulder” website.

5,615 shares,meaning users took 

a photo using the “Heads Up Boulder” filter 

and shared with their Snapchat network.

APRIL 2020 | FHWA-SA-20-008

FHWA is pleased to present this vision zero success story. While behavioral initiatives don’t typically fall under 

FHWA’s purview, they play a critical role in reaching our goal of zero deaths, and our part of our shared 

responsibility to reduce fatal or serious injuries. For more information on safe driving behaviors, please visit our 

partner agency, the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) at: https://www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety.
Implementation

2 https://bouldercolorado.gov/boulder-measures/vision-zerosafe-streets-boulder

In 2018, the City, along with community 

partners and University of Colorado Boulder 

law enforcement, staffed information booths 

to educate the public on traffic safety laws. In 

addition to staffed events, the City purchased 

bus advertising, placed campaign-branded 

street decals at crosswalks, and participated in 

an interview with a local television channel. The 

City also began a partnership with the University 

of Colorado Boulder to play Vision Zero videos 

during the 2018 football season home games. In 

addition, the City: 

• Distributed approximately 20,000 Vision Zero 

holiday safety inserts with the November 2018 

utility bills. 

• Introduced the Vision Zero online dashboard 

to highlight fatal and serious injury statistics 

and to show how data informs strategies to 

eliminate fatalities and injuries2. 

• Printed a community newsletter in October/

November of 2018 with a Vision Zero cover 

story and featured other Vision Zero items in 

three transportation e-newsletters.

• Broadcasted Vision Zero animated videos 

between programming on a local channel 

throughout the year. 

The popularity of the Snapchat campaign with 

younger audiences led the City to invest in ads 

on the mobile application platform. The City 

developed a Snapchat filter focused on general 

crosswalk safety and produced separate video 

ads for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. The 

University also circulated Vision Zero-branded 

Snapchat filters that were available during home 

football game days in the vicinity of the stadium. 

The filters were geo-fenced to the area around 

Folsom Field stadium.

© 2019 City of Boulder, Colorado. 

Figure 1. Graphic. Purchased Heads Up 

street decals.
Outcomes

The most recent citywide Snapchat ad campaign 

(which cost approximately $2,200), ran from 

August 23, 2019 to September 5, 2019, included 

a Snapchat filter as well as three, ten-second 

video ads and resulted in over 632,000 paid 

impressions and almost 9,000 video views and 

over 3,300 swipe ups. The City views the latter two 

results as user engagement as these indicate 

either some level of recognition or understanding 

of the ads. Users that reached the “Heads Up 

Boulder” website through the pedestrian-focused 

ad were prompted with a web-based quiz that 

resulted in extended interaction with the website 

compared to those who reached the website via 

the other ads.

The City previously teamed up with the University 

of Colorado student organization, CU Buffs, 

to analyze the effectiveness of the Snapchat 

campaign. The filters deployed specifically at 

home football games during the 2018 season 

cost $158 and amassed 66,595 total impressions, 

resulting in 1,613 shares and 244 saves.

The City also analyzed posts on their Facebook 

account as a baseline, and determined that the 

average video views for Vision Zero posts were 

nearly double the average views for the City’s 

general posts.

The continuation of this robust partnership and 

outreach plan is part of the City’s Vision Zero 

Action Plan 2019-2021. 

© 2019 City of Boulder, Colorado. 

Figure 2. Graphic. Snapchat filter.
© 2019 City of Boulder, Colorado. 

Funding

“Heads Up Boulder” was funded in part by a 

Colorado Department of Transportation grant 

and was conducted in collaboration with Boulder 

Valley School District and University of Colorado 

Boulder. 

POINT OF CONTACT

DAVE “DK” KEMP

SENIOR TRANSPORTATION PLANNER

CITY OF BOULDER

303.441.1955 | KEMPD@BOULDERCOLORADO.GOV

Figure 3. Graphic. Snapchat video ad screenshots.