100 Swedes die each year due to residential fires – but almost no one has fire drills at home. Own research has shown that Swedish families are generally poorly prepared for fire situations. The summer is the worst period with 79 percent more fires reported. In case of a fire, children act irrational. Instead of getting themselves out of the burning home, many hide under their beds, mainly due to fear and ignorance.

Insurance company Trygg-Hansa has worked with fire safety and prevention for many years. The brief was to increase engagement and interest in fire drills and fire safety among families and children.

Instead of trying to change behavior we tapped into existing behavior and created a digital fire drill in the form of a video game – The Fire Race. Players experienced fire situations in an easy and repetitive manner reminding children about important procedures.

We seeded the game in parent media and with partners and stakeholders as well as through Trygg-Hansa’s own channels. A new survey also mapped Swedes’ fire knowledge, view on fire drills, amount of fire protection devices at home etc and was distributed to media throughout the campaign period.

We got over 30,000 children in the game to escape a burning home and the total gaming time exceeded 20 days. A total of 251 articles about fire safety and prevention followed with a media reach of over 61 million. Most important: the number of fatalities in residential fires decreased by 21 percent in 2014.

We seeded the game in parent media and with partners and stakeholders as well as through Trygg-Hansa’s own channels such as Facebook, Twitter and e-mail newsletters. Parent bloggers initiated competitions where fans and visitors would send in their best tips on how to engage their children in fire safety.

Maybe for the first time, parents cut their children some slack while playing a video game. A new survey also mapped Swedes’ fire knowledge, view on fire drills, amount of fire protection devices at home etc and was distributed to media throughout the campaign period.

During the last two weeks of June, before the worst fire period of the year, we got over 30,000 children in the game to escape a burning home. The total gaming time exceeded 20 days, and gamers spent an average of 2:20 minutes per site visit. Soon it was national news.

A total of no less than 251 articles about fire safety and prevention followed with a media reach of over 61 million. And most importantly: Compared to the previous year, the number of fatalities in residential fires decreased by 21 percent in 2014.

If these efforts contributed little to the reduction, we can’t confirm with certainty but we do know that the game got many parents and children engaged in fire safety in a whole new way. Now escaping burning houses is child play.