The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Advertising Insurance Direct Line

Direct Line extends its ‘fixer’ positioning with launch of street light drones

Author

By Jessica Goodfellow | Media Reporter

November 16, 2016 | 3 min read

Direct Line believes it can solve the UK’s lack of street lighting, an issue most poignant in winter months, by providing individuals with the ability to call a drone fitted with a floodlight from their app to light up their way home.

Fleetlights

Fleetlights

Insurance, something everyone needs but no one wants to part cash with, is a difficult thing to advertise in a creative way. It’s why providers such as Direct Line and Aviva have shifted their strategy to position themselves as socially-conscious brands who care about the future of the younger generations, as evidenced by Aviva’s Drive app which gives discount to safe drivers, and now Direct Line’s bid to light up the dark corners of the UK.

Fleetlight drones are fitted with torches and can be controlled via an app. The ‘Fleet Control’ technology was created in collaboration with Mission Planner technology expert Michael Oborne. While the drones are still in prototype phase, Direct Line claims they are responsive to an individual’s movements, meaning the light will follow you on your way home.

The launch of drones extends the insurance brand’s ‘fixer’ positioning first established in 2014 when the brand hired Harvey Keitel to front its ads as his character from Pulp Fiction Winston Wolf. Fleetlights is part of the brand’s move to take the ‘fixer’ positioning in literal form, by attempting to form solutions to issues affecting the UK population.

Mark Evans, marketing director at Direct Line Group, said: "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 beta technology has been created to show how a responsive light service could help people to feel safer."

Direct Line worked with communications agency Saatchi and Saatchi to create Fleetlights.

Advertising Insurance Direct Line

More from Advertising

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +