Why creatives should use behaviour change as a way to connect

Communicators have relied on familiar success measures – awareness, sentiment and reach – for a long time, but that’s only the starting point, says Mark Brennan, Allianz Ireland’s chief marketing officer.

While these metrics still matter, they are no longer sufficient. The expectation is that communications deliver tangible impact, not just visibility. In sectors like insurance, where outcomes directly relate to public safety and risk, that responsibility is even more pronounced. The role of communication is not simply to inform, but to help shape safer behaviours in the real world.

In a context where individuals are overwhelmed, easily distracted and stretched more than ever, capturing attention is only the starting point.

The role of communication is not simply to inform, but also to play an essential role in designing everyday experiences that help people make better decisions.

It’s this focus on behaviour change that will increasingly determine how impact is measured and how we, as an industry, redefine creative effectiveness. Also, as digital tools become more sophisticated, it’s never been simpler to design interventions that encourage safer, healthier and smarter decisions.

Creativity must meet audiences in their world

Public attention today is more fragmented than ever, shaped by technological and economic pressures that drive constant reprioritisation. For those communicating in areas like public safety, this demands a rethink of how behaviour is influenced.

Traditional warnings or shock tactics rarely work, not because people lack knowledge, but because behaviour is shaped by context, habit and distraction.

Excess speed remains a leading contributor to fatal road accidents worldwide. But the reality is that most drivers already know it’s dangerous — knowledge isn’t the barrier. The gap is behavioural.

If we want to reduce injury and loss of life, safer decisions must be made easier in the moments they matter. That means moving beyond messaging and using creativity as a form of intervention.

Creativity that encourages real-life behaviour change

We collaborated with Forsman & Bodenfors and Spotify to create SeatBelters – a campaign led by the everyday activity of listening to music in the car.

There are numerous studies which show that music with lower beats per minute (BPM) can promote steadier heart rates, calmer decisions and increased response time, leading to more relaxed, more controlled driving overall.

SeatBelters, therefore, became a personalised, data-driven music tool. It leveraged Spotify’s Application Programming Interface (API) and behavioural insights to analyse people’s music preferences and generate slower custom playlists of tracks under 80 BPM.

And, with nearly 67,000 global users generating 5.4 million minutes of playlists, the campaign shows how blending technology with data can reshape public safety campaigns and genuinely change behaviour.

A major meta‑analysis of 395 samples and 400,000+ customers found that behavioural engagement is one of the earliest and most reliable predictors of action – a pattern echoed in our results.

With a 128 million total reach, the campaign demonstrates how strong engagement can translate into meaningful, measurable behaviour change in the real world.

What this means for creative effectiveness

By combining real-world data, psychology and audio-led creativity, SeatBelters reflects a broader shift in how creative work can drive impact. The most effective ideas today are no longer traditional ads – they’re embedded experiences that blend seamlessly into everyday routines.

Behaviour change is most effective when it feels self-directed, not imposed. The role of creativity, therefore, is not to instruct, but to subtly shape the environment in which decisions are made.

The next era of work will be continuous and adaptive for brands, but natural for audiences. Communicators will need to be present in the moments where decisions are formed, championing simplicity with contextual relevance to drive authentic behaviour change.

The opportunity ahead

Creativity is no longer about communicating value; it’s about creating it. Communicators today now have the tools to design work that improves real world outcomes, which means behaviour change should be treated as a core metric of success, not a secondary one.

SeatBelters offers a clear example of what this looks like in practice — interventions that simplify decisions, reduce cognitive load and make safer choices easier in everyday moments.

As the discipline moves from capturing attention to enabling better decisions, effectiveness will increasingly be measured not by what people see or feel, but by what they do differently as a result.