There are some weird town names in Australia. We've got Useless Loop, Delicate Knobby and Wonglepong. Tourists love them and the road signs get a photo workout. And thanks to a clever social media campaign for the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), one tiny Victorian town is about to get an even weirder name.

Speed, population 45, is set to be renamed SpeedKills, thanks to an impressive campaign created by Naked Communications. The TAC and Naked worked with the townspeople to get a pretty clear message out about driver behaviour, and cut a deal to officially rename the town if the cause could get 10,000 people to 'like' it on Facebook.

"There are too many people losing their lives on our roads and we would like to do something about it. So that's why we're changing the name of Speed to SpeedKills if we get enough support," said Speed Lions Club president Lionel Loxton.

"We set the initial target at 10 000 likes," Naked's planning partner Adam Ferrier tells Marketing magazine. "That was achieved in 12 hours. We were very surprised."

Naked and the TAC had to get together pretty quickly to capitalise on the attention, after being picked up by news broadcasts and current affairs programs, as well as online and on radio.

"When creating social media-styled campaigns, you always need to have contingencies," Ferrier says. "We had a plan in mind, which we activated. Phil Down, a resident of Speed was interviewed, and the radio host spontaneously asked him if he wanted to change it to Phill Slow down."

Naked jumped on top of it and upped the ante: if the group reached 20 000 likes, Phil would change his name. The group has burst above 30 000 likes and Speed and Down are about to be renamed. Ferrier says he's been particularly impressed in the way people have spread the message.

"Facebook users are joining the page and letting their friends know," he says, "and they're also voicing their disapproval of speeding by writing wall posts, the message is really being supported."