Digital innovation Life-Fi is set to save lives this summer by breaking down the communication barriers between surf lifesavers and international tourists.
The new technology provides access to unlimited free wi-fi between the flags and enables beachgoers of different nationalities to receive live surf patrol instructions in their own language, without requiring app download.
Romeo Digital’s head of innovation, Oscar Nicholson, explained: “Life-Fi connects people’s mobiles to an interface that detects their language settings and automatically serves them culturally specific information.”
In the past 10 years there have been 75 drownings recorded on Queensland beaches and, of these, 31 fatalities (41 per cent) were international tourists or recent migrants.
Romeo creative director Marco Eychenne said: “Life-Fi has a powerful purpose.
“To communicate briefly and effectively to different cultures, we designed prevention messages with a universal visual approach.
“In a matter of seconds, people are informed of what to do to stay safe.”
Backed by Queensland’s Department of Innovation and Tourism Industry Development, the first stage of Life-Fi rollout will be across ten tourism hotspots, in time for the school holidays.
Surf Life Saving Queensland CEO John Brennan said: “For us, the benefits are two-fold; it’s a great way to encourage all swimmers to stay between the flags and, importantly, with the steep increase in overseas visitation, Life-Fi is going to help us save more lives.”
Life-Fi is the first application of Romeo’s breakthrough Actify Live technology, which enables a direct dialogue between a brand and a person, without having to download an app.
Romeo is the digital sibling of Rumble Creative and part of the Rumbletown group of agencies.
Watch the video here.
Credits
Surf Life Saving Queensland
Media and public affairs manager: Kym Richardson
State marketing manager: Kelsie Boucher
Romeo Digital
Head of innovation: Oscar Nicholson
Head of strategy: Scott Esdaile
Managing director: Amanda Schultz
Creative director: Marco Eychenne
Art director: Marco Eychenne
Lead designer: Jade Stephens
Illustrator: Madeleine Perrin
copywriter: Mike Kennedy
Technical director: Joel Garvey
Developers: Jonny Lu, Michael Schmidt and Chris Nowlan
Account manager: Caitlin Lilley
Actify Live
Managing director: Damian Coren
