With South Africa’s roads being among the most dangerous in the world from car Hijackings – we decided to mine crime data and 3rd party car tracker data in order to understand where the most dangerous roads and intersections were. This data became our media plan – buying ads around South Africa’s most dangerous roads to divert drivers to safety by alerting them to the danger spots – before they entered them.

Real time data allowed us to add new ads to crime hotspots as they were reported. Even booking our media during the most dangerous times of day.

There are over 800 000 drivers in South Africa that use the navigational app Waze to move around the country. The problem is that the app takes the drivers on the fastest route to their destination, and not the safest. In South Africa, there are over 30 000 hijackings reported in a year, making it the country with the most hijackings around the world. There simply aren’t enough police to help bring down these numbers. The current solution are street signs that are placed in crime hotspots to let drivers know when they are entering a high-risk area. But this effort is too late. Vodacom, South Africa’s largest data and telecommunications companies, wanted to find a way to keep our roads safer. But how can Vodacom keep drivers safe using their wide network and data in real-time, while the people are already on their journeys throughout the country?

We created the mobile-first “ANTI HIJACK ADS”; using Waze ads as a tactical media platform to divert drivers away from danger. We bought hundreds of geo-located Waze ads around dangerous roads in South Africa, based on real-time data, and turned them into mobile alerts that let drivers know when they are heading towards a crime hotspot area, giving them the option to reroute around it before they enter it – using a mobile first approach to speak directly to their audience.

As the largest telecommunications and data providers in South Africa, Vodacom didn’t need more awareness or branding. The Vodacom HiJack Ads idea about turning ads into a utility that can help keep people safe, as Vodacom, through a lens of tech and a wide network coverage is the best poised to do something at scale, and with this immediate impact.

To Vodacom, this is what being a tech company is all about.

It’s not trying to raise awareness for itself, but rather to use the power of its reach and tech to keep South Africans safe.

The Vodacom HiJack Ads are an expression of the brand’s values, rather than its capabilities.

We cross-referenced national police data with car-tracker data and historical reports to determine the roads where most hijack incidents occurred. Once identified, we placed a geo-fence of real-time Waze ads around the most dangerous roads.

The mobile ads were activated by the driver’s approach which alerted them of the possible danger ahead and gave them the option to be rerouted around the crime hotspot without having to change their end destination – all communicated the through the most popular navigational app in the country. The mobile-first solution was easily and effortlessly designed around the user, speaking directly to the drivers on the road.

The efforts were bolstered by using real-time data to deploy live ads to new hijack zones as they were reported – focusing on high-risk periods and times of day. As the crimes happened, a new geo-fence was created and diverted oncoming drivers around the area at risk.

The scale of Vodacom, matched with the affordable and easy-to-activate ads, means the brand can sustain these ads for a long time to come. We're using it to send to government, police and navigation platforms to lobby for it to be a more permanent solution.

Within the first two weeks, and with only 10 locations, we:

- Reached 362,160 drivers

- Rerouted an average of 200 drivers per day

- Achieved double the engagement of Waze ads

With South Africa’s roads being among the most dangerous in the world from car Hijackings, we decided to mine crime data and 3rd party car tracker data to understand where the most dangerous roads and intersections were.

This data allowed us to identify the roads and create simple targeted ads that were activated from multiple approaching roads and would alert drivers to the danger spots – before they entered them.

Real time data allowed us to add new ads to crime hotspots as they were reported - even booking our media during the most dangerous times of day.