DFW Teens

Driving | Texting | Wrecks

No Texts, Avoid Wrecks

Preventative texting and driving program

Team 8:
Team Lead - Matthew Wilcox
Darnell James
Tony Tang
Yaorong Zhen

BCOM3311.502
Dr. Kyle Steadham
11-18-2015
The University of Texas At Dallas

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................1

BACKGROUND/PROBLEM.......................................................................................3

PROPOSAL...................................................................................................................5

PLANNING SCHEDULE.............................................................................................8

SUCCESS MEASURES................................................................................................9

STAFFING....................................................................................................................11

BUDGET.......................................................................................................................12

CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................13

REFERENCES..............................................................................................................14

GRADING RUBRIC.....16

Executive Summary
Teenage texting and driving is causing accidents in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area. This
proposal will demonstrate the need to educate DFW high school students so that a reduction in
these accidents may be seen in the near future. Accidents caused by texting are yielding financial
losses, injuries, and even deaths in DFW residents families. Texting and driving has been a
problem for at least a decade now and will only continue to be so. Young kids are exposed to
technology at a much earlier age and most probably know how to operate an IPhone or IPad
better than their parents! As they grow older, they will buy cars and drive. Many of these
students will text and drive. This will lead to accidents and deaths that could have been
prevented by a few small measures.
General Motor Company and the GMC Foundation will be creating a interactive video
with choices that will allow high school students to view how their choices will affect them when
operating a vehicle while texting. A heads up cell phone will allow users to input their choices
and also help mimic the real experience of texting while driving. The video will be uploaded
onto a website to grant the students access to the content. DFW high schools will allow its 9th
and 10th grade students to watch the video once a year. These students are targeted as they are
not yet operating a vehicle but will soon do so. Our hope is that the project will, through
education, convince them enough to choose not to text and drive. The project will be determined
a success if at least 80% of public schools make the commitment to use the interactive website
yearly. We will receive feedback from several thousands of student survey responses. GMC has
a vested interest in the project as it will gain goodwill marketing exposure, brand enhancement,
and an increased interest in GMC vehicles leading to a potential rise in sales.
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In order to achieve this task, GMC is asking the Dallas Regional Chamber for a donation
of $10,550. The funds will help the company to put this project together. The costs will include
filming equipment, cast and crew, film production support, editing, website hosting and website
development. The Dallas Regional Chamber will benefit from approving the request due to the
positive impact the project will have on the community. Together we can keep our roads safe,
which will help create the perception of DFW as a city that cares about its commuters.

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Background/Problem
GMC is one of the nations leading automobile companies. Since its inception in 1911,
GMC has been committed to selling safe and reliable vehicles to its customers. GMCs mission
statement is to engage in socially responsible operations. As texting and driving fatalities are on
the rise in the DFW, it is our responsibility to address the issue. With this program, GMC hopes
to make DFW a safer place for all commuters, especially teens.
Texting became a social norm since the year 2000 when the release of qwerty keyboard
cell phones was launched on the market. The release of the Iphone in 2007 which started the
smartphone era. These phones allow users to communicate faster and easier. Many studies have
linked texting and driving to be the cause of life-threatening accidents due to driver distractions.
Texting and driving is now the number one cause teenager auto accident fatalities with
3,000 fatalities annually beating out former champion drinking and drinking with 2,700. It is
estimated that 11 percent of drivers (under the age of 20) involved in fatal crashes were reported
as distracted at the time of crash. Texting and driving keeps the users eyes off the road for 5
seconds. That means that while traveling 55 mph, the length of a football field is traveled. People
who text and drive also spend 10 percent of their time outside their lanes and are 23 times more
likely to get into an accident. In 2009, the DFW area had 2,260 accidents due to texting and
driving with 611 fatalities. One hundred and twelve were teen fatalities. The numbers have only
increased; in 2014, there were 3,742 accidents, 720 deaths, and 130 teen deaths. That means that,
nationwide, 5 percent of the total teenager deaths due to texting and driving occur in the DFW
area alone.
The reported numbers, however, may actually be lower than in reality. Texas police
officers are required to ask if cell phone usage was a cause of accident. They report back that an

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alarming amount of people say no. They dont want to admit that something silly like texting and
driving cause their accident which lead to financial loss, the destruction of their vehicle and
maybe even the death of somebody. These statistics are saddening and a cause for alarm. We
hope to reduce them with the implementation of our project.

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Proposal Idea
Our team will be creating a website to host an interactive video, with purpose of letting
DFW students try texting and driving. The website will have multiple components: the
interactive video, educational statistics, and a survey to be completed after the video. Each of
these pieces will play a vital role in the success of our project. The website will be presented in a
modern format that teens are already familiar with. Students will log into the website during a
computer lab hour, chosen by the individual schools staff members. Each student will get to
interact individually with the website, which will create a personalized, meaningful experience.
At the heart of teen texting and driving is a misprioritization of whats important, so we hope to
let our teens see what their priorities when driving should be.
The most important piece of the website will be the video itself. It will follow a decision
tree pattern, with each decision that the students makes affecting the entire rest of the video. See
the diagram below for more details. Participants will also be allowed to pick a guy or girl main
character to provide even more of an individual experience. Given one computer lab hour, the
students will be able to go through the video 2-3 times, allowing for the students to observe
many different outcomes.

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After the student has completed watching the video, he will have an option to complete a
brief survey to help him think through how he can apply what he observed from the video to his
own life. More details of the survey are covered under the success measures section.
The third portion of the website will be dedicated to education statistics on texting and
driving including: brief testimonials from drivers who have seen the first hand effects of texting
and driving, up-to-date accident and fatality rates, safe driving tips, and more.
Bellow is a small preview of our website.

The completion of this project will meet a major concern in the DFW area. When the
website launches, upcoming drivers will have the ability to see how important not texting and
driving is. If GMC is not able to complete this project, there will be no avenue safe for high
school students to experience the devastating impact of texting and driving, except in real life.
Initial investments will produce benefits for the students, general DFW population, GMC,
and local business. For the students, the knowledge gained from program will decrease the

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likeliness of getting into a wreck. With less accidents, our roadways will be a safer place for the
general population. GMC will gain goodwill marketing exposure, brand enhancement, and an
increased teenage interest in our vehicles, as the video will feature their distinguishing factors.
Finally, local businesses will benefit from economic development in that as our roadways
become less dangerous, more families will want to live in the area and, thus, spend their money
here.

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Planning Schedule
January
Week 1: Hire a filming crew and cast. Reserve the location for shooting.
Rent the filming equipment.
Week 2: Begin the early stages of shooting.
Week 3: Start developing the website.
Week 4: Complete filming.

February
Week 1: Begin editing our video and finish mechanics of the website
Week 2: Have the film professionally finished
Week 3: Our marketing interns will make all major connections with
school district course directors.
Week 4: Polish the website and make it live

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Success Measures

We pride ourselves in building the most reliable vehicles the world has to offer. Through
innovative technology and the best engineering team, we have been very successful within the
past decade. We would like our success to spread towards a non-profit initiative that encourages
prevention of teen injuries and fatalities caused by texting while operating a motor vehicle in the
DFW area. We believe our proposal will find success in the DFW high schools.
The target market for this campaign are students ranging from 9th - 10th grade in the DFW
public school districts. We feel targeting this age group is an opportunity to encourage positive
or alter the negative mindset teens have concerning driving a motor vehicle while texting
someone. There are about 300,000 high school students and our proposal concentration is
targeting approximately 180,000 of them. Our success measures rely on the appropriated funds,
quality of the video, marketing staff to influence school district leaders to endorse the project
within their educational institutions, and our feedback surveys from the students. General Motors
and the Chamber of Commerce will be the proud sponsors of this proposal reaching over a
180,000 students at the cost of about $0.14 per student.
We will be presenting an online feedback survey to the students after they have watched
the video. It will give us an assessment of the overall impact the video had on the students and
how this video may or may have not influence responsible driving practices for them going
forward.

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Staffing
The high definition video will be filmed and produced by the top end of equipment, film
crew and notable director. We will hire two marketing major students, preferably those with
interest in the automotive industry, from the University of Texas at Dallas as one month project
interns. We will compensate the interns at $16/hour and will incur 200 hundred hours of labor,
which will result in a budgeted $3,200. The marketing team will endorse our vision for the video
before the DFW school district leaders and visit a few dozen schools to prepare staff leaders and
teachers regarding our vision for the students in their institution.

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Budget
Our aim is to are impact about 180,000 students in public high school of all DFW area
that for the budgeted $24,500. Thus, the cost per student impacted is about $0.14. Recall that 130
students in the DFW area last year passed from texting and driving. Idealistically, this means it
would have cost just a few dollars to influence these students before they passed. The purpose of
the program is to increase safer driving in all DFW area. In order to achieve the program, the
safe driving education video will be needed to be film and the website will be needed to create.
Most of the money will be using on shooting the video and develop the website which can allow
student interactive with the program. The costs include renting the filming equipment and hiring
the cast and crew. We will also be hiring two marketing interns for a months time. The table
below exhibits the appropriated funds needed to make this project initiative emerge.
Expenses

Budget

Filming Equipment

$5,400

Cast and Crew

$3,500

Editorial

$3,000

Filming Finishing

$3,500

Film Production Support

$3,500

Website database hosting

$1,200

Website development

$1,200

30 Day Marketing Campaign

$3,200

Sum Total

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$24,500

Conclusion
GMC has a passion for the safe operation of their own and other brands motor vehicles.
We as a staff are excited about the opportunity to make a large difference in our DFW teeagers
lives. As 130 DFW students in 2014 passed from wrecks caused by texting and driving,
implementing our solution to this issue is urgent. This proposal plans to reach most DFW high
school students via a website and video that will engage their minds before they start driving. We
will be educating these teenagers to use smart tactics that lead to non-distracted driving. Our
success will be measured by the impact we have on the teen fatalitate rate over the next couple of
years. The investment is $24,500 and the costs will include website development, filming
expenses, and two marketing interns. GMC is asking that the Dallas Regional Chamber provides
50 percent of the financial support of this project as the DFW area small business will see
sustainable economic development stemming from our proposal. Our program will help Dallas to
become a safer and prosperous city.

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References
2014 Best Dallas Area High Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2015, from
http://www.davedowns.com/best-high-schools-dallas.htm
About the General. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2015, from
http://www.gm.com/gmfoundation
Aleksintser, M. (2014, April 11). Teen Death by Texting: Prevent it with defensive driving.
Retrieved October 16, 2015, from

http://www.myimprov.com/teens-driving-and-

death-by-texting/
Battiste, J. (2012, December 19). Texas Texting Debate Fueled By Death | Traffic School
Online.
Retrieved October 13, 2015, from
http://www.myimprov.com/texas-texting-debate-fueled-by-death/
Everything you ever wanted to know about booking a video crew. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19,
2015, from http://www.gototeam.com/video-producer-guide/
Facts and Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2015, from
http://www.distraction.gov/stats-research-laws/facts-and-statistics.html
Study: Texting and driving top cause in teen driving deaths. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2015,
from

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http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-texting-while-driving-now-leading-causeof-death-for-teen-drivers-1.5226036
Texas: Cell phone laws, legislation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2015, from
http://handsfreeinfo.com/texas-cell-phone-laws-legislation/
Texas Motor Vehicle Crash Statistics - 2014. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2015, from
http://www.txdot.gov/government/enforcement/annual-summary.html

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