Design Agency Steers Motorists Towards Fuel Savings

November 2006

A podcast designed and developed by award-winning communications agency, diva creative, is helping South Yorkshire motorists save money at the fuel pumps, whilst also helping the environment by reducing vehicle emissions.

Diva produced the ‘A-to-B Efficiently’ eco-driving podcast, thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, for South Yorkshire air quality awareness campaign, Care4Air. The podcast was designed with portability in mind, and is available in a variety of different computer and media player formats from www.care4air.org.

Shirley Harris, diva Director, said: “We are always keen to explore new technology mediums, and how best to use these technologies, and we felt developing a podcast was the most effective way of getting the ‘eco-driving’ message to motorists. The great thing about the ‘A-to-B’ podcast, and podcasts in general, is that they can be viewed ‘on–the-go’, so if you’re out and about and need a quick reminder about how you can cut your vehicle fuel bill, you can have instant access to the money-saving tips.

“We believe that this resource is unique in the UK, possibly even in Europe, and is just one of the many ways in which we have worked with the Care4Air campaign to promote air quality messages.”

Podcasting is the practice of making audio and video files available for download over the Internet. These files can then be saved and played on a variety of formats, including PC’s, laptops, PDA’s, and personal media players such as the video iPod.

Recent studies in the USA claim that more than 22 million Americans own iPods or personal media players, and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the internet so that they could listen to or watch files at a time of their choosing.

The popularity of podcasts is seen as good news for businesses, with potentially millions of adults subscribing to podcast services or downloading content as and when they choose. Many organisations are already using the medium to release regular information on new products, adverts, public service broadcasts, or any other type of content that can be downloaded as a one-off, or regularly.

To see the eco-driving podcast, please visit www.care4air.org