Saatchi & Saatchi Australia has won a Creative Innovation Lion in Cannes for the Toyota LandCruiser Emergency Network. It is the second year in a row the agency has won the title, following their Creative Innovation win in 2015 with Penny the Pirate for OPSM, which was also named as the Most Effective Campaign in the World in the WARC 100.

The LandCruiser Emergency Network has also been awarded a Gold Lion and Silver Lion in the Promo and Activation category at Cannes earlier this week.

The LandCruiser Emergency Network is a pioneering new technology that can deliver emergency communications to outback Australia via Toyota LandCruisers.

Developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Australia in partnership with Flinders University, the device has been engineered using a clever mix of WI-FI, UHF and Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology, an area that lots of people are looking into – including NASA for interplanetary communications, to turn vehicles into communications hotspots each with up to a 25km range.

The technology is currently being piloted in a fleet of LandCruisers fitted with the device in the remote Flinders Ranges – one of the most harsh and dangerous parts of the Australian outback. Toyota is also currently exploring the feasibility of a commercial vehicular rollout of the LEN devices.