Situation. 45% of all young Australian deaths are due to road traffic accidents. Young drivers are 25% of all road deaths and are only 10-13% of licensed drivers. In Australia, learner drivers (or L-Platers) are required to record their on-road driving hours using a government mandated manual logbook, each time they go for a supervised practice drive. An old-school system which is stressful, inaccurate and doesn’t add any value.

Brief. AAMI, Australia’s leading insurance company knew young drivers were the most at-risk. But when we started researching why, we discovered that the way they learn to drive hasn’t changed in 50 years. We needed an innovative solution to an age-old problem.

Objectives. Making our roads safer is at the heart of everything AAMI stands for. We thought it was time to update how we teach our kids to drive, keep them safe and help create a safer generation of drivers.

Using a series of API integrations, coupled with a cross-mobile development platform, the AAMI SmartPlates app is able to use inbuilt mobile functions to automatically record and monitor driving data. Combining this with an authenticated-user driving review, the AAMI SmartPlates app is able to produce a learner driver’s logbook of information.

The development process took 6 months with rigorous user testing (including a closed beta) and customised app adjustments to fall in line with each of the different Australian State Government requirements.

The SmartPlates mobile app has been placed in both the Australian Apple Store and Google Play store. In addition to our mobile platform, we supported the launch of AAMI SmartPlates with an integrated campaign including website, digital media, YouTube, cinema, social, outdoor and collateral.

We selected the last week of February 2017 as the ideal date to launch AAMI SmartPlates as Australian high school students returned to classes after their long summer break.

The learner drivers’ logbook is a legal requirement in Australia, so our scale is national.

We launched in South Australia first, as the South Australian Government was the first to officially recognize AAMI SmartPlates as their primary digital platform for Learner Drivers.