Kids lose interest when learning serious topics like road safety and quickly forget what they were taught. But they do learn faster, without realizing it, while playing.

Doodle Mats, created by Renault, are the first play rugs for kids that feature real-life streets and pedestrian crossings from around their homes, mapped from Google Maps and Google Street View. Together with parents, children play and learn traffic safety, on replicas of roads they walk every day.

On our website, parents input their home address and a custom-made algorithm converts Google Maps and Street View data into illustrations that recreate the surroundings of their home: buildings, streets, pedestrian crossings and much more. They are printed on a carpet and delivered.

Each design is a unique combination of illustrations, generated from personalized geolocation data. The innovative products leverage mapping technology to create fun educational tools that keep kids safe in the city.

Parents customize and order their Doodle Mats on a dedicated website. They only need to select their address, choose the style and the area around their home that will be illustrated on the carpet. The entire process is quick and easy.

We recruited artists to create 200 individual illustrations: buildings, roads, crosswalks, landmarks and many other urban elements, in 3 different styles to choose from.

Using an innovative algorithm, geolocation data from Google Maps and Street View is precisely converted into corresponding illustrations. All building types (residential blocks, shops, museums and dozens of others), streets and intersections are recreated. Especially important are pedestrian crossings, placed in their exact locations, so kids, helped by parents, learn how to cross streets safely. The result is a beautifully illustrated miniature neighborhood that closely resembles the real thing.

The dimensions (1.5 x 1.2 meters) fit perfectly in kids’ rooms. The supplier was specially selected to comply with the highest child-safety standards – both in term of materials and paints used. The carpet is then packaged and delivered.

At home, children can use their toys and play, while parents explain road safety rules on the very streets and pedestrian crossings of their neighborhood.

As word spread about the Doodle Mats, parents went to our website and mapped a total of 378 km2 of city area, to apply for their customized play rugs. The orders exceeded expectations for the launch promo by over 300%.

Press and influencers picked up the idea and promoted it on their pages, praising the brand for getting involved in pedestrian safety in a surprising and innovative way.

Thanks to the success of the launch promo, Renault plans to offer Doodle Mats as a permanent product, to support their road safety efforts.

This way, the brand helped in educating kids about traffic safety, so they will become a more responsible generation of pedestrians and drivers.