Short, high-quality videos that address current, fleet-specific driving safety issues and that are accessible from mobile devices can help achieve greater driver compliance with fleet safety policies, a regional sales manager with the CEI Group told a group of North Carolina fleet managers.

Just as consumer marketing firms and political campaigns have learned to target their messages to specific audiences, "fleets need to go beyond the classic approach to safety," which goes only so far in achieving results, said Ken Latzko, the company's southeast sales manager. "The goal of micro-targeting is to achieve compliance by assuring that your safe driving message resonates."

To illustrate, Latzko cited work by CEI Studios – CEI's in-house video production department – to create videos for a client fleet that had had a surge in at-fault rear-end accidents. CEI created videos that cited the company's recent accident and related injury statistics and featured photos of actual fleet vehicles damaged in those accidents.

CEI produced a video aimed at drivers, and another video aimed at field managers that cited the impact of those accidents on company sales and revenue, and urged managers to drive the safety message to the drivers they supervise.

"Our client told us that some drivers were so impressed with the video that they shared it with their families," Latzko said, noting that powerful safety messages can have an impact beyond improved compliance with fleet policy. "The keys to effective micro-targeted videos are to focus on timely, topical issues that matter to your drivers, make them easy to access and make sure they look good."