Insight
Cyclists feel frustration and fear in the London traffic. What if they could turn this personal frustration into a data driven movement that would improve the cyclist’s situation in the future? For that, we would need a mobile communicatons tool that didn’t feel distracting or unsafe to the cyclist when on the bike.
Creative Idea
We decided to re-invent the bicycle bell, giving it more features than just an alarming sound. Based on a Flic button, we developed a bell that sent an email to the mayor every time you pushed it – and we plotted out the location of this frustration on a real time London map on our campaign site. Of course the bell still sounded, but now through your smart phone. Together with our partner MyNewsdesk, we teamed up with London Cycling Campaign and handed out 500 flics to cyclists. The real magic was giving all the single cyclists power through numbers, helping each other creating a safer London for themselves and their friends with the help of data.
We named the campaign Give a Beep.
Our campaign reached more than 100 million people through earned media. But more importantly, 5 000 shared beeps directly from the Hövding target group provided enough data for the Mayor’s office to see where in London cyclists feel fear and frustration. Thousands of emails to the Mayor and vast coverage in the news, made it hard for the Mayor’s office to neglect the campaign. London Cycling Campaign is now feeding the London transportation office with Give a beep data for fixing short-term traffic problems and, in a direct letter the Mayor asked for our findings, to include in the city’s long-term cycling program.
Hövding doubled sales in comparison to the same period in 2015 . Meanwhile the news about Give a Beep spread way beyond UK and Hövding have received requests to implement the campaign in 12 countries – giving Hövding unique legitimacy in new markets. First out will be Brussels.
We made a brand building, sales driving, earned at core campaign, with a smart, easy to use tool – used for enhancing the bicycle infrastructure in modern cities. And along the way, we helped Hövding going from “only" saving lives everyday to also saving lives in the future.
Used properly, creative use of data can both save lives and be purposeful for brands. For Swedish innovative airbag helmet brand Hövding, we developed the world’s first emailing bicycle bell, plotting out – and informing the Mayor’s office on – where in London cyclists feel frustration and fear. The data gathered by the campaign will now be used by the Mayor’s office and their cyclist program.
22,988 motor accidents involving cyclists inside the M25 between 2009 and 2013 – more than 12 every day. So for our target audience, cyclists, safety on the London road was a real problem.
Approach
Even though the Hövding Helmet saves lives, it can’t slow down the increasing amounts of traffic accidents, involving cyclists. For that to happen we would need to unite the community and influence the city’s politicians. And to do that, we would need to get the Mayor’s attention – with data to back it up.
Call to action
Together with the London Cyclist Campaign, we approached 500 cyclists, and provided them with our newly developed bicycle bells. Because since the London traffic has changed substantially the last 100 years, the bicycle bell should too. Suddenly our target group could display where they felt distress, and that data could be used to make London safer in the future.