There has always been a stigma attached to insurance: it is a bet. Will something actually happen? In a time when we can get anything instantly, it feels outdated to pay for insurance we might never need – especially for young people.

We have addressed this by designing an insurance product and app that makes use of existing technology: Apple’s fall detection.

Once set up, the app recognizes whether someone is testing their new sofa or actually experiencing a fall. Only in the latter case do The Fastest Insurance activate entirely automatically and the monthly premiums kick in.

Data shows that young people are taking out less and less insurance. Only 33% have liability insurance, 15% have pension insurance and 10% have household insurance. They are turned off by the industry; it is not sufficiently flexible or innovative, nor does it reflect the zeitgeist.

Given the rise of wearables and Apple’s fall detection technology, we came up with the idea of developing a product which solves problems for the insured and insurer.

First, this meant offering young target groups flexible insurance meeting their needs without charging their bank accounts immediately.

Secondly, the insurer was given a way to reach young target groups again – with an innovative product that hopefully leads to more insurance.

The Apple Watch is perfect for this. The technology is so precise that insurers can rely on it, while the Apple brand is so trusted that young target groups do not doubt it.

The Fastest Insurance is the first-ever insurance product you only pay for when you need it. This is made possible by the VHV app developed specifically for the purpose, plus Apple’s fall detection technology. It distinguishes between a genuine emergency and the wearer just testing their new sofa.

To use the service, customers sync their contract data by logging into the VHV app. It connects to VHV’s online service and – with permission – to Apple Health.

By syncing with Apple Health, we get access to the internal fall detection. The moment a fall is detected – and an emergency call happens – our app activates the insurance automatically. The monthly premiums only kick in then.

In short, The Fastest Insurance is the first-ever policy you take out at the moment of the accident, rather than before or after it, which makes it the ideal introduction to young target groups.

Q3 2020

The idea of The Fastest Insurance was generated by the agency and the project started after pitching it the client.

Q3 2020 – Q3 2021

We worked together with our client to design a functional and viable insurance product before starting the development of the actual app.

Allocation of budget of 50K, plus media for further steps.

During this period, we met and worked with all relevant departments on the client side: product development, finance, legal, quality management and their innovation team.

After several workshops, discussions about what the actual product can cover and how to make it financially viable, we started to seek out partners for development.

Q3 2021

Together with a development partner, we explored different execution options and created first initial conceptual dummies to showcase the product to our target audience.

Q4 2021

We created a public landing page including the concept of The Fastest Insurance, an explanatory case film and further information. Visitors could then tell us if they were interested.

The concept (mock up stage) was also part of a university project in which we gathered further information about our target group, particularly about how they use wearables and how they see them in the context of insurance.

Further development of the app was started, watchOS structure vulnerabilities were explored and feedback from previous steps was taken into account.

Over the course of several months, we designed, coded and tried different forms of technical execution and finally ended up with a prototype.

Q1 2022

The first prototype made its way to the client and award shows.

The prototype runs on an iPhone 7 Plus and an Apple Watch SE. However, the innovation works on all Apple Watches that feature the fall detection technology.

It has been developed in Xcode (13.0) for watchOS.

Apple’s fall detection technology is currently simulated using the accelerometer. The watch evaluates many different (also secret) factors in an algorithm to determine whether a fast movement, a fall or just a push-up have happened. For a dangerous fall, the watch records it and triggers an emergency alert followed by an emergency call.

Our app aims to connect to Apple’s fall detection service (CMFallDetectionManager) to get access to the number of falls detected. If the app notices an increase in the falls recorded – e.g. a fall and an emergency call have been registered – it can automatically activate The Fastest Insurance.

Currently, the app does not have a real back end and thus does not yet have access to VHV’s databases – if it were market-ready, the insured would log in with their username and password, synchronize existing contract data with the watch and the app would thus have permission to conclude the insurance contract.

Insuring the – metaphorically speaking – burning house is always a difficult task. After all, this is about how an industry finances itself. That is why we see The Fastest Insurance as an innovative way of switch selling. With this accident insurance policy, we want to attract the young target groups and position VHV as a modern insurer that knows and responds to the needs of their everyday life and adapts to it.

Building awareness and trust for VHV, we want to generate more of other types of insurance, like car, liability or household insurance.

Looking at the industry as a whole, we are aware that this specific solution is not the panacea for all types of insurance. But it shows that even insurance companies can evolve and offer products that meet emerging needs. We are happy to play a pioneering role and challenge our competitors to do the same.