The Campaign

In Australia, brands are beginning to embrace branded content but rarely is it done in a truly compelling way. As for road safety campaigns, the statistics made it evident that young drivers weren't getting the message. We saw a way to change that. S-Drive is an example of how a brand can deliver a serious message in a way that people actually want to seek it out. It's an example of content that actively engaged participants in their everyday routine, whether driving to university, to work, the shops or the beach. By using S-Drive in their car they were constantly interacting with the Samsung brand more than they would normally, adding a new level to brand engagement. In this project for Samsung, we weren't restricted in anything other than the fact that we knew traditional advertising and shock tactics wouldn't work on our target so we'd need to reach out to them in a new way.

Results

Despite years of government scare tactics, inexperience and the ever-increasing distraction of smartphones mean that 1 in 3 young Australian drivers crash within their first year of driving, and 2 die on our roads every week. It was time to reach out to them in a different way. Samsung saw that it could actually use its smartphones to begin a new dialogue around road safety and, in the process, turn one of the biggest distractions on the road into a life saving tool. To do this we created S-Drive, a safe driving program that encourages and rewards safe driving. At its heart is an app that monitors driving behaviour, giving out points for every safe kilometre travelled - points that can be redeemed for rewards. Targeted at a city with one of the worst youth accident rates in the country, S-Drive launched with a direct response recruitment campaign using print, posters, outdoor, ambient, radio, social, YouTube videos and PR – all directing people to sdrive.com.au where they could learn more about road safety and sign up for S-Drive. Activations at surf festivals and universities also signed up people on the spot. The free S-Drive kit came with a phone cradle equipped with an NFC chip that automatically activated the S-Drive app, along with safe driving mode, allowing for voice only responses and discouraging drivers from touching their phones. Using GPS data, the app then monitors driving, awarding you points for staying below the speed limit and not touching your phone. On March 6th, 2,500 drivers started driving safely with S-Drive. As a piece of branded content S-Drive became part of participant's everyday routine challenging them to improve their driving in order to redeem three tiers of rewards that range from the everyday, such as free coffee and fuel, to the once in a lifetime, such as snow trips.

To draw our audience we created content for YouTube, Facebook, radio, press, outdoor and ambient, launching a recruitment drive across all media simultaneously. Everything directed people to sign up for S-Drive – a safe driving program that encourages and rewards safe driving through a smartphone application. The app itself was also branded content that became an extension of participants' driving lives. An additional social component incentivised friends to create Drive Teams with two friends via Facebook or their phone contact list and motivate each other to drive safely to win special team-only rewards. In this way, S-Drive used peer pressure for good.

4,500 active participants 3,000,000+ safe kilometres travelled 25,000+ rewards claimed Crashes in S-Drive region down 25% Fatalities down 20% (17-25 yrs) compared to previous year Lowest death toll in the launch region since 1936 Program participation has climbed week-on-week instead of declining after launch like traditional advertising campaigns. S-Drive to be factory installed on all Samsung Galaxy phones S-Drive now to roll out internationally with expressions of interest from 55 countries.