It’s hard to picture being in a fire, and stressful situations can make us act incorrectly. By conducting a fire drill, muscle memory is affected and therefore, so is behavior. We recreated a real fire situation, from a child’s perspective, in a family home and called it ‘Playing with Fire’. Via a 360° video, we let children experience a fire and perform a fire drill in an authentic environment, without being put at risk. Through actively watching an educational fire drill in VR, viewers could explore and detect fire and smoke development by themselves. Meanwhile, they were being instructed on how to act rapidly and safely exit the burning house. We designed VR-cardboard headsets and handed them out for free and, in addition to developing school material, children all around Sweden were able to experience ‘Playing with Fire’ as part of their school education.

‘Playing with Fire’ was launched in December, the month when there’s an increased risk of house fires. VR-cardboard headsets were handed out. Using VR on a mass scale, as the method for education on fire safety, was the first of its kind in Sweden.

Along with the VR/360 film, we also produced a trailer to generate interest. Prior to the launch, we invited two families to try ‘Playing with Fire’. The experiment was made into a case film which was also used on social media to explain the initiative and describe the situation.

Trygg-Hansa employees were engaged to act as volunteers. A project still ongoing and in which co-workers still visit schools all over Sweden to educate children on fire safety. ‘Playing with Fire’ is also to be used by the fire department in their own preventative work. ‘Playing with Fire’ is soon to be launched in Norway.

The communicative results exceeded expectations with a total reach of over 15 million. So far, the initiative has resulted in over 100 articles and five TV broadcast segments. The largest media outlet in Sweden picked up the news of the initiative during its first week, and the main spokesperson from Trygg-Hansa explained the importance of the initiative in national media. On social media, we reached out to parents and children and ‘Playing with Fire’ became 2016’s most cost-effective traffic-driving campaign for Trygg-Hansa.

The campaign reached over 225 000 children. As a next step, the initiative is being implemented by the Swedish fire department who will use ‘Playing with Fire’ in their preventative work. The initiative strengthens Trygg-Hansa’s position as the expert in issues regarding fire safety and child safety. In published articles the campaign has a 100 % positive tendency and a PR value of over 2 million.