Case Study: Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

Challenge

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is an alliance of consumer, medical, public health, law enforcement, and safety groups and insurance companies and agents working together to improve road safety in the United States. The Advocates’ mission is the adoption of federal and state laws, policies and programs that prevent motor vehicle crashes, save lives, reduce injuries, and contain costs. Presenting clear and accurate information is crucial to Advocates success in both lobbying and recruiting stories from victims and the support of stakeholders. Daylight was tasked with creating a new website that would be easily editable by Advocates, scalable for adding a variety of content, easily readable and searchable (text-dense website) for both the primary audiences of elected officials and policy-makers, as well as the general public. We were also tasked with updating their brand.

Solutions and Outcome

Working with the Advocates team, Daylight designed and developed a new website for Advocates, saferoads.org, focused on the information-intensive needs of their primary audiences. This includes a filterable news section, where users can easily sort through a variety of content, from press releases and Congressional statements, to action alerts and media appearances. In addition, Daylight has designed Advocate’s eagerly anticipated annual editions of the Roadmap of State Highway and Safety Laws, bringing visual character and messaging to what had been a ‘white-paper”-like dry presentation. Finally, Daylight and the Advocates team collaborated on a new logo design; Advocates’ goal was to convey the power and undeniable presence of Advocates in the highway safety law space, as well as to achieve a more contemporary and compact feel. Daylight also regularly produces visual aids to strategically assist members of Congress in presenting Advocates’ information on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Daylight trained the Advocates staff to easily update and add content to the site, without distraction from the more technical aspects of the set up. The site is now nearly 10 years old, but still performing well and serving Advocate’s mission well.

Services

  • Design, art direct, copywrite, develop, launch, maintain, and host websites; infographic design.
  • Branding and identity
  • Hardened website security
  • Custom photo-illustration and graphic design
  • Ongoing website maintenance and monitoring
  • Essential WordPress training
  • SEO and Google Analytics
  • Brand guidelines

“In our 28 years you never have failed us with your creative genius. I can’t tell you how many positive comments I have received about how terrific your work is from my board members, congressional staff and the press. Every year you come up with amazing and original ideas and you set the bar a notch higher. I always look forward to working with you because of your incredible energy and creativity. Thanks again for always coming through for us. Your work for Advocates has been so beneficial to advancing our safety program and reputation as an effective and credible organization.”

Jackie Gillan, Former President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

“Jamie Douglas has delivered a consistently high-level of thoughtful and creative work for many of our important causes. We always look forward to having him on our team.  He quickly understands the challenges we face, proposes original suggestions and presents unique and compelling ideas that help us advance our message. I once used his brochure at a congressional hearing to demonstrate my concerns about triple trailer trucks. His visuals drove the point home better than my words.”

Joan Claybrook, President Emeritus, Public Citizen