A01. Innovative Technology (incl. standalone solutions not in association with a brand or creative campaign)
Entrant Company
WHAT3WORDS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency
WHAT3WORDS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name
Company
Position
Chris Sheldrick
What3words
Ceo
Jack Waley-Cohen
What3words
Coo
Giles Rhys Jones
What3words
Marketing Director
Will Henderson
What3words
Production Manager
Steven Ramage
What3words
Strategy Director
The Brief
what3words is a innovative global addressing system based on global grid of 57 trillion 3mx3m squares where each square has been allocated a unique & fixed 3 word address.
Why?
Around 75% of the world suffers from inconsistent, complicated or no addressing systems.
This means that around 4 billion people are invisible; unable to report crime, to get deliveries, receive aid, or exercise many of their rights as citizens because they simply have no way to communicate where they live. It means that in remote areas water facilities, schools, hospitals and refugee camps are difficult to locate and manage.
Even in countries with more advanced address systems, people get lost, packages aren't delivered, and businesses and tourist attractions don't get found.
Just a 1% improvement in the UK government's addressing data would deliver a £25bn saving for the economy.
Street addressing is not universal and the only existing global solution is latitude and longitude coordinates, a string of 18 digits & letters that is impossible to remember, difficult to say and easy to make errors when communicating.
Our award-winning, patent pending algorithm converts these complex coordinates to 3 simple dictionary words and back again.
Using words means non-technical people can find any location more accurately and communicate it more quickly, more easily and with less ambiguity than any other system.
what3words is a team of 12 with angel funding.
Our APPs are free and our API is public. They are being used by consumers in over 170 countries and are being integrated into solutions for companies, aid organisations and governments.
We are on a mission to change the world.
what3words is a disruptive innovation that has given everyone, everywhere and everything a simple address.
Our tiny algorithm converts complex coordinates to 3 usable words and back again.
We have our own app and site but importantly what3words is also a plug-in for businesses and individuals, via an API, to add their own products and services.
It works across all platforms, browsers and devices. It can be used with voice input and offline with no data connection. Words can easily be written, said, printed or shared digitally. It is available in9 languages including English, French, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili with 14 more, including Arabic coming. The algorithm recognises which language you are using.
We use between 25k-40k words per language, have removed offensive words, homophones (e.g. sale & sail), and have shuffled similar sounding (e.g. plurals) 3 word addresses as far away from each other as possible so it's obvious if you have made a mistake.
For ease of use the algorithm has allocated more common words to densely populated places in the countries that speak that language. As 3 word addresses are pre-assigned and fixed they can be used instantly, cost effectively and with no concern of any changes.
We intend to support fair and equitable use. what3words will always be free for individuals to use on our site and apps. When we charge for our API we employ a structure that provides qualifying organisations include humanitarian and not-for-profit entities with a range of free and discounted usage plans.
We are growing by adding more partners, languages and premium functionality including AutoSuggest to intelligently detect mistakes and CompassMode, allowing you to navigate with no map. We are also working on voice recognition and wearables.
We have received $3m of seed & angel funding over the past 2 years.
Our goal is to become the global standard for communicating location.
Better addressing can improve customer experiences for the navigation, tourism and sports industry, drive efficiencies for delivery and logistics firms, it allows the growth of ecommerce and improve lives through more efficient humanitarian aid and disease management.
We are working with our partners to market the benefits to their users. 3 words are currently accepted by 20+ companies including Navmii – a navigation app with 25 million users, Kartverket – the Norwegian mapping agency, Ulmart – Russia's Amazon, and Esri – the largest supplier of Geographic Information software in the world.
3 word addresses are being used to help Cartero Amigo deliver packages in the favelas of Brazil, by Iyeza Express to deliver medicines South Africa and in Tanzania by In2care to service mosquito traps and by Pollinate-Energy in Indian to distribute solar lights to the slums. The British Museum has just addressed over a million archaeological finds with 3 word addresses.
We were used to address Glastonbury festival in the UK, 3 word addresses form the basis for a scavenger hunt TV show in Canada and in August the UN added our API to their disaster reporting app.