Strategy Creative 147 Drive Road Code

Finalist
Credits
  • Pou Auaha / Creative Directors
    Oliver Ward, Matt Innes, Fraser Callaway
  • Ngā Kaimahi / Team Members
    Mike Peters, Ryan Shields, Mark Wilson, Kaelin Lutz, Kris Magadia
  • Kaitautoko / Contributors
    Yukfoo, Tor Robinson
  • Client
    Waka Kotahi & ACC
Description:

As a young Kiwi, taking those first steps into the world of driving can be an exciting but daunting one. It’s an experience full of expensive tests, inaccessible language and archaic rules – all topped off by a crippling fear of failure.

It’s for all these reasons, and more, that many young Kiwis don’t get their learner’s licence, yet they drive anyway out of necessity, putting themselves and others at serious risk.

Our mission was to create a small sub brand with a big goal. A goal of getting those young Kiwis more ‘at risk’ to study, sit and pass their learner’s licence. The sub brand ‘Drive Road Code’ tackles the fundamental issues of the licensing system head on. Placing simplicity, accessibility, achievement and enjoyment in the driver's seat, ultimately saving lives.

We were inspired by the idea of ‘theory to practice’ and how the very experience of working towards getting your learner’s licence is about firstly understanding the theory (often 2D content) and putting it into practice out in the real world (where everything is 3D).

Drive Road Code works by encouraging young Kiwis to engage with educational learn-to-drive content beyond just memorising the answers to the test.
To develop the brand, we worked closely with young people to understand their mindsets when it came to learning to drive, as well as the brands that are part of their day-to-day lives.
We worked with them to develop the brand via an incredibly iterative and collaborative process. The brand was applied across a variety of formats; such as a physical card game, interactive website and mobile app – ensuring the brand was associated with the stage in the journey rather than just one product and that there was a method to access the content for everyone.

To reach optimum accessibility, we purposefully embraced an overly simplified, geometric 3D illustration style to emphasise the accessible principles designed into the brand. We also drew bold, simplified parallels with the iconic and highly accessible design of New Zealand’s road signs.