Southern Cross' Speedometer Billboards Keep Kiwi Pets Safe and Healthy

Southern Cross Pet Insurance (Southern Cross) has launched a series of New Zealand-first ‘speedometer billboards’ as part of its new Live Your Pet Life project, a campaign designed to keep Kiwi furry family members safer and healthier for longer.

Developed by TBWA\NZ, MBM and LUMO Labs, the special billboards are now live in a range of locations nationwide.   

TBWA\NZ developed the new creative platform Live Your Pet Life for Southern Cross, which supports the Southern Cross’ mission of helping pets live healthier, longer lives. The first phase of the campaign focuses on road safety, with the billboards detecting and displaying the speed of passing vehicles. The billboards also showcase eight Southern Cross-insured cats and dogs and messaging that congratulates drivers on their safe speed, or implores drivers to drive safely and within the speed limit.

Working with MBM and LUMO, TBWA\NZ transformed a range of digital advertising executions into interactive billboards that respond to the average speeds of drivers in high-risk areas.

Using roadside speed signs as inspiration, TBWA emulated a similar concept utilising media space. The ‘speedometer billboards’ use LENS software, tracking the live speed of cars travelling past to calculate an average speed. 

Southern Cross Pet Insurance general manager, Anthony McPhail, says the inventive campaign is a fantastic way to spread the message about improving road safety for pets.

“With this campaign, we’re on a mission to help our nation’s cats and dogs live healthier lives for longer. We want to encourage drivers to be more aware of their surroundings and remind them to slow down for the sake of animals in their area. We think these billboards are a wonderful way to do that,” he said.

Shane Bradnick, chief creative officer for TBWA\NZ, says the campaign is part of an ongoing initiative to help pets and their owners ‘live their pet life’ with Southern Cross. 

“These initial executions are a great way to use outdoor and data to bring the message to life and being able to hero Southern Cross-insured pets has been a lot of fun. 

“We hope this campaign reminds New Zealanders there’s another important reason to be safer on the roads and show our pets we care. Let’s all slow down for Ollie, Wolfe, Dixie and Margot.

“We are looking forward to releasing the next chapters of how we will help our pets live their pet life,” he said.

LUMO Labs’ head of digital design, Jamie Snow, says the team enjoyed creating such an innovative message for the Live Your Pet Life campaign.

“The campaign provided us with a unique opportunity to utilise our audience measurement technology in a way we hadn’t previously explored,” he said.

“With the technology being a camera-based product, we were able to develop real time speed recognition and tracking for each individual site. Depending on the results, this allowed us to then run a message either applauding the average driving speed or promoting a message for safer driving to protect our furry friends.” 

The speedometer billboard sites are spread across Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, and Christchurch. The road safety message is the first stage of a longer campaign that will look at other ways furry members of the family can ‘live their pet life’.