Every day, 11 teens die from distracted driving. That’s more than 4000 teen deaths every year that happen despite them being fully aware of the dangers of texting or posting from behind the wheel.

As the world’s most connected automaker, with a vision of zero crashes and a goal to stay relevant to young car drivers, Chevrolet needed to find a solution to curb a dangerous behavior that is as natural as breathing, while increasing its brand appeal among the most demanding target: teens.

CallMeOut - the world’s first smartphone app powered by peer pressure to curb distracted driving.

The app uses the phone’s accelerometer and gyroscope to detect when you’re driving, and activates call-outs recorded by friends and family each time you get a driving distraction, to personalize your risk. If a friend “calls you out,” you’re more likely to break the habit of distracted driving.

The app was created by Chevrolet, but available for every car on the road to help curb distracted driving.

Most teen drivers know distracted driving is wrong but do it anyway. 84% admit that handling a phone while driving is dangerous, but 90% do it anyway. Teens have the highest risk; they’re the most inexperienced drivers on the road and feel compelled to stay always connected. They’re 4x more likely to be in an accident due to distracted driving.

Fear tactics have proven to be ineffective. We realized this couldn’t be another awareness campaign. Our solution had to change behavior. We found that 78% of teen drivers say they’re likely not to text and drive if friends tell them it’s wrong or stupid.

Our insight was that, for teens, the pressure of being judged is bigger than “missing out”.

We co-created the solution with teens in a global hackathon (29 teens, 10 countries). We proto-typed and beta-tested with Wayne State University anthropologists to evaluate its potential of changing behavior.

The Call Me Out app launched September 2018 to parents and teen drivers across the US in the Google Play store.

We produced influencer stories, pop-sockets and stickers, online CallMeOut cards, OLA, and gamification rankings of users to speak to teens in ways they resonate with. 40% of YouTube subscribers say their favorite content creators understand them better than their friends. That’s why we tapped into the clout of social influencers, including Mike Tompkins and the Merrell Twins, to create story-telling moments and to amplify their promotions of the app.

We met teens where they were by dispatching an actor on college campuses across the country who attempted to enroll students in a “distracted driving school.” This course was a hidden-camera experiment intended to teach students passing by how to drive while distracted. It was meant to paint distracted driving as a counterintuitive, unwise activity. The resulting experiment captured quizzical reactions from unsuspecting students questioning the legitimacy of learning to drive while distracted. As expected, they didn’t buy it.

95% of notifications received by app users were ignored since campaign launch (back to school 2018). This means a total of nearly 2 million phone calls, texts, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat notifications were prevented from turning into potential tragedies.

• Phone calls ignored: 32,070

• Facebook notifications ignored: 1,186,891

• Instagram notifications ignored: 45,112

• Snapchat notifications ignored: 168,119

• Text notifications ignored: 356,443

• Total Received: 1,873,298

• Total Ignored: 1,787,805

Proving that all you need to keep hands on the wheel, and not on the phone is a little peer pressure.