Volkswagen launches latest safety innovation designed by children via Colenso BBDO
In 2014, Volkswagen was the biggest R&D spending company in the world, investing US$13.5 billion. Much of this focus is on safety.
And while Volkswagens are undoubtedly getting safer and safer it is still driver behaviour, mainly speeding, that is the single biggest cause of road crashes and most significant factor in determining whether a crash will be fatal.
Dangerous decisions on the road occur due to momentary lapses in judgment. Our rational, responsible selves take a backseat to the irrational person racing to a meeting, or overtaking a frustratingly slow driver.
The Volkswagen Reduce Speed Dial experiment aimed to disrupt behaviour at this critical moment.
In a controlled experiment conducted by Colenso and FINCH, directed by Luke Bouchier – four families were supplied with Volkswagen Golfs. Unbeknown to the parents, Volkswagen, Colenso and FINCH created a replacement panel for the speedo. They followed all of the clarity and safety restrictions of a standard speedo, but the dial was personally hand written by one of their children. This simple, personal mnemonic aimed to remind our parents what they have to live for at the exact moment they considered speeding.
Volkswagen followed the Kiwi families and their driving habits to understand the impact of this idea and whether we could in fact, engineer safer drivers. The results, whilst indicative at this stage, have been very promising:
- One family had no recorded speed infringements after the installation of the personalised speed dial
- One family reduced their top speed by 19kmh from a max of 123km to a max of 104km
- Half of the drivers’ maximum speeds reduced after fitting their personalised speed dial
- Three out of the four drivers reduced their incidence of speeding in 100km zones by 50%.
Overall, all of the families reduced their speed in multiple driving situations.
Says Tom Ruddenklau, general manager at Volkswagen New Zealand: “With Volkswagen Group the biggest spending R&D company in the world, we focus on engineering safer cars year after year. But safety ratings don’t change driver behaviour – and there’s an opportunity for our brand to do our bit in trialling some things that may. It was a great opportunity to work with four Kiwi families to investigate a simple idea that may one day help us all.”
Says Nick Worthington, creative chairman Colenso BBDO: “As with most problems we often overlook the most simple answer. We hope that the results from this early trial help to direct more focus on the cause of the vast majority of crashes – the driver. This has been an emotional process for everyone involved and we believe that having a simple reminder from a loved one in front us at the exact moment when you are thinking about speeding is a brilliant way to make people think about everything and everyone they have to live for.”
Colenso BBDO
Creative Chairman – Nick Worthington
Creative Director – Levi Slavin
Digital Creative Director – Aaron Turk
General Manager – Scott Coldham
Business Director – Krystel Houghton
FINCH
Executive Producer – Michael Hilliard
Director – Luke Bouchier
22 Comments
well done, this is cool.
Just in time for Cannes.
Utter rubbish. An ‘experiment’ with 4 families. How obviously scammy and gimmicky can you get?! Where is all the great proper work from Colenso on Volkswagen? Where is the beautiful print, the classic human observation based film, the stunning activation…
Very, very good.
This is fucking great. Really cool.
Seems like a cop out / awards bait just to make a case study video. Why not convince the client / cut through the red tape and make it real?
Otherwise it’s just Pedigree donation glasses – all fluff and no substance.
that they are not going to just stop there and this is the start of something. At least that is clear from the website if you look beyond the film.
Fine me
it makes perfect sense that a car brand would prototype a device, beta test it on a small group, and roll out the results to see if it’s worth spending more R&D money on putting the product into full production and offering it as a dealer installable option.
this is good, smart innovation. i expect it will go further.
You don’t just ‘cut through the red tape’ of the world’s biggest R&D investor. You start small, then increase the sample size, prove results and then, and only then, can you ‘make it real’ (I presume ‘make it real’ means mass market?) .
Watch this space.
Very good. I’m jealous too.
£100,000 bet this never rolls out further.
This is a good idea, but come on…
If I owned a company and was developing R&D, why would I pay an expensive film company (Finch) to make a film about the ‘experiment’ when the results speak for themselves? I could have got a one man band to do the same with a similar result.
Once again, has the mighty Colenso six-figure+ scam/initiative budget been put to good use again? Everyone advertising knows about it, I just wish Colenso would be more transparent about the times they put their own cash into projects like this.
I suspect so. Just in time for most award shows.
Will we have to wait for (yet another) disgruntled/made redundant ex-employee to spill the beans over a few beers about how this really came about?
All Europeans – great representation of NZ.
These guys are a fast becoming a parody of themselves. The results are hilarious.
How many people have been shot iced by these guys to fund scammy shit like this?
Unlike DDB, Colenso doesn’t pay clients to let them make award bait.
Love or hate an agency, but keep it about the work.
The idea is cool, any of us would want to have made it and if it wins awards so what.
There isn’t a lot of great work coming out any NZ agency at the moment so hopefully this flies the flag for us all.
Come on, dudes. if you work at a real agency you know that for certain stuff you don’t charge full whack and pull in a few favours. I don’t work at Colenso, in fact you might say they’re our biggest rival. But I bear them no ill will for doing what they had to in order to get this great idea out. it’s what every agency does.
FCB – mini
DDB – Paw Justice
Clemenger – world press photo
Saatchi – those bloody Powerhorse energy drink ads
Y&R – the motorbike workshop ads
Colenso – this
Mojo – oil on canvas
Whybin – minds for minds
if you can make it you should. Keeps you sane between the nights you spend peddling burgers to fat people, big screen TVs to the poor and credit cards to people who shouldn’t have them.
Well said sir.
The level of hate is usually directly proportional to how much other people wish they could do work like this. I don’t work at Colenso but I know I would love to have my name on a campaign like this. Rather than whining about it maybe everyone should focus on trying to match or better it.
Perhaps you should focus on writing better burger ads than asking the agency to cough up some cash for some awards folly. Your argument ignores that fact that scams like this are created for deception purposes only: create the impression that an ad is real in the hope that it deceives juries into thinking it’s real. But we all, as an industry see right through it.
Furthermore, not all agencies can throw money at scams. So, what do they do? They try to write better burger ads than the ones the networked agencies can’t.
Why are we even debating this ad? It’s a total scam. They should be ashamed.
BTW, I’m a client, ex suit from Greys Ave. I know the system.
Well, as an ex suit from Greys Avenue you undoubtedly know more about scams than most….
These comments should be less about whether it’s a scam and more about putting pressure on VW to roll it out with every model. This is a social forum after all, probably read by clients. It would be nice if the feedback to VW was overwhelmingly positive that this is a brilliant idea that could definitely lower speeding and save lives.
We’re supposed to be championing the potential of creativity to solve problems. You’re an idiot if you can’t see the magic here and a bit of a dickhead if you refuse to acknowledge it.
If I had kids it would work on me one hundred percent. It’s a fucking genius idea.