What’s the best gift an insurer can give people? Safety, right?
Saatchi & Saatchi London has helped Direct Line to develop Flightlights, a fleet of flying torch drones that make darkly-lit areas safer for people.
The drone fleet service, which is still under development, is responsive to an individual’s movements and controlled via an app.
Mark Evans, marketing director at Direct Line Group, commented, “Increasingly, technology will shift the centre of gravity for insurance from restitution towards prevention. We want to lead the trend into this space and so we are always looking at innovative ways to proactively improve everyday life through emerging technologies. We felt that street lights could be much better, especially as the nights draw in. This prototype service has been created to show how a responsive light service could help people to feel safer.”
As the “Fixer” brand and a home and motor insurer, Direct Line wanted to solve the issue of darkness that affects communities across the UK by looking at the problem in a new way. The company is acutely aware of the threat that comes with the dark nights and reduced sunlight hours of autumn. The risk of muggings and road traffic accidents increases and people feel more depressed. They are less likely to leave their houses, as poorly lit streets can feel unsafe. Road traffic accidents increase and 41% of these increases result in injury to pedestrians [Road Safety Association/PACTS Oct 2010]. Searches for Seasonal Affective Disorder spike in October and November every year.
Fleetlights were designed to make people feel safer, more secure and confident to use dimly-lit routes, whether they are walking home from the pub shift late at night or part of a search and rescue team. They will be able to order a drone using their phone to light the path for the duration of the journey.
Direct Line collaborated with Mission Planner technology expert, Michael Oborne, to create new Fleet Control technology. This enables Fleetlights to be ordered via GPS and mobile technology directly from the user’s smartphone. The technology lights a pre-determined path ahead of the user, while responding and adapting to changes in the user’s journey.
Wendy Pearson, head of marketing at Direct Line, commented, “Fleetlights is an incredibly exciting project, that demonstrates how Direct Line has taken a real consumer issue and solved it in a high performance way.”
The technology developments are available on the website and open sourced to anyone to use globally.
Credits:
Advertising agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London
Executive creative directors: Rob Potts & Andy Jex
Digital executive creative director: Ricardo Figueira
Creative: Mark Campion
Planner: Sam Wise
Account handlers: Alice Flanagan & Paul McHugh
Integrated head of film: Zoe Bell
Media buying agency: Mediacom
Media planner: Philipp Iorio
Production company: Inside Job
Director: Ross Cairns
Editor: Alex Pickering
Head of content: Alex Hedges
Executive producers: Kelly Broad & Matthew Jones
Producers: Simone Maggi, Julia Frost & Hollie Forsyth
Post-production company: Electric Theatre Collective
Audio post-production company: The Sound Company
Music composition: Aidan Lavelle