Arsenal v Tottenham – how this insurer is grabbing data – and clients – Insurance Business America
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It’s 8:00am and you’re in Tim Hortons buying your first coffee of the day. Strike that, since Burger King took over it’s not the same. Let’s set the same scene, but in your locally owned coffee shop. The Barista has just made a half-hearted attempt to draw a heart – or maybe it’s a whale spouting – in the foam on the top of your brew. On the café counter there are not one, but two tip jars – one says Team Canadiens, the other Team Leafs, or maybe it’s Team Blond and Team Brunette. The decision now for you is not whether to give but which to give to. The small act of giving becomes a vote, a bit of low-stakes tribalism that nudges more people to participate – and hopefully for the Barista’s holiday plans, to give more.
Suncorp-owned insurer AAMI is betting the same impulse can move something far larger than café change. The Australian insurer has rolled out a nationwide push to make driver monitoring a mass-market contest: download an app, track your driving, compare scores, win prizes – and tell your friends. It’s playful on the surface, but the strategy is hard-edged. By opening its telematics beyond policyholders, AAMI is looking to harvest richer behavioural data, improve safety and – crucially – identify the best risks sitting on competitors’ books.
The mechanics are familiar to anyone in usage-based insurance (UBI): the app records trip-level telematics and ranks motorists on behaviours every underwriter cares about – speeding, harsh braking, cornering, acceleration and phone use. The twist is packaging. Leaderboards, cash incentives and a public scoreboard transform compliance into competition. Safer drivers get bragging rights and, in time, sharper offers. Higher-risk drivers get priced accordingly or left with their current carriers.
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AAMI says it has observed measurable improvements in driving scores and associated reductions in claims among program users over a multi-year period, based on hundreds of millions of kilometres of captured trips. The message to the market is straightforward: better behaviour, fewer crashes, lower loss costs – and a new acquisition funnel built on data consumers volunteer.
Canadian carriers know telematics. UBI products seeded the market a decade ago, especially for young drivers, and many large carriers now use some form of app-based scoring. Yet uptake remains uneven, engagement often fades after onboarding, and too many programs function as static discounts rather than live prevention tools.
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AAMI’s gambit challenges that complacency on three fronts:
No one should mistake gamification for a silver bullet. Risk teams and actuaries will want to see credible answers to four practical issues:
AAMI’s creative puts distraction in the crosshairs, for good reason. Mobile-phone interaction is a leading contributor to incidents and near-misses, and it’s one of the few risk factors that can be changed quickly with feedback, prompts and incentives. For Canadian carriers, that suggests a near-term prevention play: use app telemetry to flag risky phone use, push targeted nudges, and measure downstream claim effects. The prize is not just safer roads; it’s a cleaner loss trend.
AAMI’s move is not about gadgets; it’s about shifting the locus of value from paying for loss to preventing it. If an insurer can persuade a critical mass of drivers to share trip-level data – and then act on that data with discipline – the payoff arrives in lower frequency, moderated severity and better customer selection.
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Canada doesn’t need to copy Australia’s creative. But the strategic arc is hard to ignore. Telematics that entertains, informs and recruits is different from telematics that discounts quietly in the background. The former can change behaviour and books; the latter rarely moves a loss ratio.
For an industry facing inflationary claims costs and volatile weather losses, leaving a prevention lever underused is a luxury few can afford. The puck has dropped. It’s time to play in the offensive zone.
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