Toyota Safe & Sound App
Toyota Europe
Issue 45 | December 2017
Agency
Saatchi & Saatchi London
Creative Team
Chairwoman and Global CCO Kate Stanners Executive Creative Director Toyota Europe Jason Mendes Executive Creative Directors Andy Jex, Rob Potts Art Directors Jose Hernandez, Linda Weitgasser Copywriters Victor Moron, Alex Sattlecker Head Of Design Bruno Di Lucca Senior Designer Mark Rix
Production Team
Agency Producer Ally Dean Production Company Rumble Director Kirkland & Rafalat Post-Production Company Unit Media Audio Post-Production Company Unit Media Digital Company Molamil, Copenhagen
Other Credits
Planner Paul Hackett Account Handlers Rikke Wichmann-Bruun, Sophie Morrison
Date
August 2017
Background
Research showed young drivers were at a much higher risk of crashing than older drivers and one in four 18-24 year olds crashed within two years of passing their driving test. For the younger generation of drivers, grabbing or reaching for their phones after hearing a ping or push notification was far too tempting to ignore – and was almost second nature in any situation no matter how dangerous. The National Safety Council in America found 26% of all road accidents were caused by improper mobile phone use and that 80% of young drivers made or received phone calls while driving and 72% texted while driving.
Idea
The Safe & Sound smartphone app used a humorous threat of embarrassment to stop kids from speeding or using their phones while driving. Designed to give parents peace of mind when their children borrowed their car, both parent and child need to download the app and then pair their phones. When a child wanted to borrow the car, the parent simply activated the app by swiping / handing over a set of virtual keys.
The app blocked all social media notifications and incoming calls through the 'do not disturb' feature, which was activated via Google Maps API technology when it detected the car was moving at over 9 mph.
Using the insight that there's nothing teenagers fear more than being seen as uncool, the app also harnessed a music functionality that sync'd both parent and child Spotify accounts. When the young driver touched their phone or exceeded the designated speed limit, the music they were playing suddenly cut out and their parents' embarrassing playlist kicked in instead.
Only when the driver stopped interacting with their phone or returned to the speed limit would their own music return. At the end of the drive both parent and child were provided with a drive summary on the app.
Results
With £0 media spend, the idea has led to 135 pieces of consumer, creative and marketing trade and car trade press coverage in over 20 countries. Reach was measured at 582,000,000 online readership, 4.15m coverage views and 19.6k social shares.
Our Thoughts
I'm not sure this would work in our household. My son seems to like all the music of my youth – Pink Floyd, Cream, Hendrix etc – so would enjoy having my playlist interrupt his. But that isn't really the point of this amusing idea. Rather it was to demonstrate that Toyota has all its drivers' best interests at heart and is a thoughtful and imaginative company.
The app simply allowed the brand to tell a nice little story through the power of PR.