World Bank: #Roads4Life
Okta:
Higher Ed Video
World Bank: #Roads4Life
Road crashes kill more people in Africa than malaria. The African Road Safety Observatory (ARSO), backed by the World Bank and the Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP), was created to change that through better data. But data doesn't save lives on its own — people have to understand it, trust it, and act on it. We developed the communications strategy, visual identity, and multilingual campaign toolkit to make that happen across an entire continent.
A road safety crisis spanning 54 countries and three languages. One campaign idea: data saves lives. Our job was to make an entire continent believe it.
CHALLENGE:
The message was technical: countries need to collect, standardize, and share road safety data. The audience was everyone: government officials, transportation ministers, local organizations, and everyday citizens across Africa. The languages were English, French, and Portuguese. The cultures span the continent.
Most road safety campaigns lead with fear — crash imagery, statistics about death. That approach numbs people. We needed to do the opposite: make data collection feel hopeful, urgent, and actionable. The campaign had to work in a ministerial briefing in Abidjan and on a poster in a transport office in Nairobi. Same message, radically different contexts.
And the toolkit had to be modular enough for country-level partners to deploy independently. We wouldn't be in the room when the materials were used. The system had to be clear enough to work without us.
Creative Approach:
1. Strategic Messaging. We worked with World Bank and ARSO stakeholders to distill complex road safety data goals into a clear, compelling message: “Data Saves Lives.” This central idea anchored the entire campaign, making the importance of data collection immediately understandable to a wide audience.
2. Visual Identity Development. I oversaw the creation of ARSO’s new campaign visual identity. The design balanced authority and approachability through:
Strong, legible typography
A vibrant, pan-African-inspired color palette
Clean iconography and infographics to aid understanding
3. Multilingual, Pan-African Toolkit. Recognizing Africa’s linguistic diversity, we created campaign assets in English, French, and Portuguese. I guided our team in ensuring all designs and messages worked consistently across languages and regions.
4. Asset Production. We delivered a comprehensive, modular toolkit including:
Social media graphics
Infographics and data visualizations
Presentation decks
Print-ready posters and banners
Messaging guidelines for partners
This approach empowered ARSO and country-level partners to deploy the campaign flexibly across channels and contexts.
Results:
✅ Delivered a unified, professional campaign that positioned ARSO as the authoritative source on African road safety data.
✅ Made a complex, technical message clear and engaging through “Data Saves Lives” storytelling.
✅ Created a versatile, multilingual asset toolkit for broad, pan-African deployment.
✅ Supported the World Bank and SSATP’s mission to advance safer roads through better data.
APPROACH:
We anchored the entire campaign on a single idea: "Data Saves Lives." Three words that reframed a technical policy goal as a human imperative. Everything — the visual identity, the messaging, the assets — flowed from that central concept.
For ARSO's visual identity, we designed a system that balanced institutional authority with accessibility. A pan-African-inspired color palette that felt warm and inclusive, not governmental. Strong typography that worked across all three languages without losing hierarchy. Clean iconography and infographics that could communicate road safety concepts without relying on literacy or language.
The campaign toolkit was built for deployment at continental scale: social media graphics, infographics and data visualizations, presentation decks, print posters and banners, and messaging guidelines for partners. Every asset was produced in English, French, and Portuguese — not translated after the fact, but designed to work natively in each language from the start.
The system was modular by design. Country-level partners could pull assets, adapt messaging to their local context, and deploy across channels without breaking visual coherence. We built the tools so the campaign could travel without us.
Creative Approach:
1. Strategic Messaging. We worked with World Bank and ARSO stakeholders to distill complex road safety data goals into a clear, compelling message: “Data Saves Lives.” This central idea anchored the entire campaign, making the importance of data collection immediately understandable to a wide audience.
2. Visual Identity Development. I oversaw the creation of ARSO’s new campaign visual identity. The design balanced authority and approachability through:
Strong, legible typography
A vibrant, pan-African-inspired color palette
Clean iconography and infographics to aid understanding
3. Multilingual, Pan-African Toolkit. Recognizing Africa’s linguistic diversity, we created campaign assets in English, French, and Portuguese. I guided our team in ensuring all designs and messages worked consistently across languages and regions.
4. Asset Production. We delivered a comprehensive, modular toolkit including:
Social media graphics
Infographics and data visualizations
Presentation decks
Print-ready posters and banners
Messaging guidelines for partners
This approach empowered ARSO and country-level partners to deploy the campaign flexibly across channels and contexts.
Results:
✅ Delivered a unified, professional campaign that positioned ARSO as the authoritative source on African road safety data.
✅ Made a complex, technical message clear and engaging through “Data Saves Lives” storytelling.
✅ Created a versatile, multilingual asset toolkit for broad, pan-African deployment.
✅ Supported the World Bank and SSATP’s mission to advance safer roads through better data.
This project operated at a scale I'd never worked at before — 54 countries, three languages, a crisis that kills 300,000 people a year on the continent. The creative challenge was the same one it always is: take something complex and important, and make it land for the people who need to hear it. The distance between a World Bank data initiative and a transport officer in Lagos is a translation problem. That's the work I do.
THE RESULTS:
• Unified visual identity for the African Road Safety Observatory
• Complete multilingual campaign toolkit (English, French, Portuguese)
• "Data Saves Lives" messaging framework adopted across ARSO communications
• Materials deployed by country-level partners across the African continent
• Campaign supported the World Bank and SSATP's mission to reduce road fatalities through better data infrastructure
Creative Approach:
1. Strategic Messaging. We worked with World Bank and ARSO stakeholders to distill complex road safety data goals into a clear, compelling message: “Data Saves Lives.” This central idea anchored the entire campaign, making the importance of data collection immediately understandable to a wide audience.
2. Visual Identity Development. I oversaw the creation of ARSO’s new campaign visual identity. The design balanced authority and approachability through:
Strong, legible typography
A vibrant, pan-African-inspired color palette
Clean iconography and infographics to aid understanding
3. Multilingual, Pan-African Toolkit. Recognizing Africa’s linguistic diversity, we created campaign assets in English, French, and Portuguese. I guided our team in ensuring all designs and messages worked consistently across languages and regions.
4. Asset Production. We delivered a comprehensive, modular toolkit including:
Social media graphics
Infographics and data visualizations
Presentation decks
Print-ready posters and banners
Messaging guidelines for partners
This approach empowered ARSO and country-level partners to deploy the campaign flexibly across channels and contexts.
Results:
✅ Delivered a unified, professional campaign that positioned ARSO as the authoritative source on African road safety data.
✅ Made a complex, technical message clear and engaging through “Data Saves Lives” storytelling.
✅ Created a versatile, multilingual asset toolkit for broad, pan-African deployment.
✅ Supported the World Bank and SSATP’s mission to advance safer roads through better data.
