our workNetwork Rail / Horrifying Effects behaviour change campaign
Every year, thousands of people needlessly risk their lives straying on the railway. In 2025 we worked with Network Rail and the British Transport Police to change the behaviour of adults that think they can outsmart the risks, in a horrifyingly hard-hitting cinema, TV and YouTube campaign that reduced rail trespass by 23% and delivered 120% ROI.
120% ROI
A 9% reduction in delay minutes reduced compensation costs by 20%
53.75% YouTube VTR
Well above industry benchmark, reducing the cost per view to £0.02
23% reduction in trespass
Plus a very welcome 16% reduction in deaths by suicide
It’s always about the positive impact…
A hard-hitting homage to old school safety campaigns
We can’t share with people what really happens the moment someone strays on the tracks and is electrocuted, or misuses a level crossing and gets struck by a train. It’s too horrific.
So instead, we recreated it. By tapping into popular behind the scenes ‘making of’ style content and the audience’s love of horror films, we viscerally deflated our audience’s confident self-belief in a series of ultra-gory films that showed the horrifying effects of rail trespass – without ever showing real gore at all. Taking our inspiration from the golden age of public safety videos, we paired first responders with the film-making talent that deliver practical special effects in horror films.
Because once you see and hear the horrifying effects of electrocution and train strike, you can’t unsee and unhear them. We made content our audience wanted to watch - and then couldn’t forget…
SFX make-up x NHS burns specialist
Recreating a gruesome bone-deep electrical burn
Stuntman x NHS emergency doctor
Recreating the spine-snapping impact of a train
Foley x Network Rail first responder
Recreating the gory sounds of boiling bodily fluids
Performance director x BTP
Recreating the soul-deep grief of a victim’s mother
Tackling the behaviour of over-confident rule-benders
To change behaviour, you first have to understand what’s driving it. 75% of rail trespassers are adults, mostly men, and the most common reason given for straying on the tracks is taking a shortcut. RSSB research showed us that this shortcutting audience believes its judgement is king. Not just when it comes to assessing risks, which is a pretty universal human trait, but regarding rules themselves, too.
They believe pursuing convenience is in their DNA, and so while trespass on the railway might be against the law, it’s not inherently wrong if it gets them from A to B faster and it’s perfectly safe if you keep you wits about you.
It’s not an anti-authoritarian mindset. They’re just full of extraordinary self-belief.
When an audience believes rules can be bent and risks can be managed, it’s not enough to simply outline the danger. Knowledge is power, and better understanding simply fuels their misplaced confidence and makes a danger feel more avoidable. We needed to make this audience feel the danger, in their bones.
Behaviour…? Changed.
Network Rail described the campaign as “the best performing we’ve ever tested on many key metrics.”
23% reduction in trespass incidents at campaign priority locations
9% reduction in delay minutes
20% reduction in associated delay costs – an ROI of 120%
16% reduction in death by suicide - an unintended, yet entirely welcome, outcome was a significant reduction in people choosing campaign hotspots to take their life during the monitoring period. We successfully dispelled the perception that death by rail is instant, inevitable and painless.
Nearly 2 million YouTube views with a 53.7% VTR - well above 25% industry benchmark, and the highest of any previous You vs Train campaign, beating the precedent we set with our Harrison’s Story campaign
£0.02p cost per view on YouTube, against a planned £0.10p, reflecting the fact that YouTube’s pricing model rewards content that people actually watch
30% increase in visits to the You vs Train website
64% of the target audience said the films changed how they think about railway safety
65% said they’d share the content
18% increase in stated intention to avoid unsafe behaviours
7% increase in understanding of electrocution risk
This was an incredibly brave campaign for Network Rail and the British Transport Police to run – hats off to them for staying true to both their own research and our strategic and creative recommendation, and holding their nerve when it would have been easier to dilute the thinking.
Production credits
This series of film is a love letter to the craft and graft of the film industry – we couldn’t have made it without a super-talented team of practical effects specialists and expert first responders.
Production company – Space
Producer – Matt Nelson
Director – Dominic Joyce
DOP – Dominic Joyce
Visual Effects – Matt Wood
Special Effects Make-Up & Prosthetics – Shaune Harrison & Paula Anne Booker-Harrison
Stunt co-ordinator – Martin Shenton
Sound & Foley – Dan Piggott
Theatrical Performance – Martin Gibbons
Grieving mother – Kitty Randle
NHS Specialist Burns Nurse – Nicole Lee
NHS Emergency Medicine Consultant – Ben Owens
Network Rail Mobile Operations Manager – Anthony Boyle
British Transport Police Officers – Meghan Fifield & George Philpot