Title	MR. BEAR DRIVER
Brand	THE AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF ROMANIA
Product/Service	APP GAME
Category	D03. Use of Branded Content created for Digital or Social Media
Entrant	PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
Idea Creation	PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
Media Placement	PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
PR	PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
Production	PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
Additional Company	NURUN ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA

Name	Company	Position
Jorg Riommi	Publicis Romania	Chief Creative Officer
Dan Frinculescu	Publicis Romania	Group Creative Director
Adrian Iota	Publicis Romania	Art Director
Mihai Costache	Publicis Romania	Copywriter
Alexandra Stoica	Nurun Romania	Digital Account Manager
Mihai Pocorschi	Nurun Romania	Digital Producer
Camelia Efrimov	Publicis Romania	AV Producer
Andrei Badeanu	Optimedia	Performance Manager
Alexandra Murray	Publicis Romania	Client Service Director
Ioana Dinu	Nurun Romania	Social Media Manager
Andreea Grigorean	Publicis Romania	PR Officer
Catalina Popescu	Publicis Romania	PR Executive
Calin Buzea	Nurun Romania	Managing Director

The Campaign

We decided to convince drivers to slow down by teaming up with someone they would surely listen to. Their own kids. “Mr. Bear Driver” is a fun mobile game that teaches kids traffic safety. But there’s a catch… When played in a moving car, the game connects to GPS and Google Maps to track the real-life speed. Whenever the limit is exceeded by more than 10km/h, Mr. Bear (the in-game character) asks children to tell mommy or daddy to slow down. If drivers don’t slow down, the game ends in a crash. But If they comply, players get a bonus and the game goes on. This way, little passengers became safety copilots and learn in real life that speeding is a big no-no. The idea could also be implemented by other standalone games, as kids play all the time on the backseat while parents are driving.

Creative Execution

After a teasing and content campaign on Facebook, the game was launched in the second part of summer holidays in Romania. The game was launched together with Orange, and is also available on Orange’s newly bought smartphones and tablets. The game was launched for free, nationwide, on App Store and Google Play and is still available on both platforms. TV prime time news and online media picked up the message and created a national conversation about children’s safety.

- Over 9000 slowdowns recorded and counting - 25% of Romanian population reached by the safety message (according to the Romanian Association for Audience Measurement) - 400k earned media - The game is now also implemented in Portugal by the name of “Boris o Condutor”, through the “Automovel Club de Portugal” (Automobile Club of Portugal) and on its way to other European countries, through national automobile clubs.

We used a media familiar to children, smartphones and tablets, in a surprising way: we created a mobile game that is GPS and Google Maps enabled and tells kids playing the game in the backseat of a moving when legal speed has been exceeded. Then, it asks the kids to tell drivers to slow down immediately.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In order to convince drivers to slow down and drive safer, we targeted them not directly, but through their kids. So we conveyed our road safety message right on kids’ favorite toys nowadays, where it could have a real impact: on smartphones and tablets. The novelty of the idea ensured large coverage by national prime time TV News and online media, starting a nationwide conversation about children’s’ safety on the road.