FM PRO TECH 5: Damian Hanley on Spotify, Behavioural Design, and Safer Driving
Allianz Ireland’s Seat Belters campaign turns music streaming into a behavioural safety tool, using Spotify data, BPM research, and personalised playlists to encourage calmer driving habits.
Developed with Forsman & Bodenfors and shaped closely with Allianz Ireland, the campaign moves road safety away from shock messaging and into everyday listening behaviour. Instead of interrupting drivers with fear-based warnings, Seat Belters works inside a habit already built into most journeys: music.
The system creates personalised Spotify playlists using tracks below 80 BPM, drawing on research that links calmer music with steadier heart rates, improved response time, and more controlled driving decisions.
Launched as a social-first campaign, Seat Belters has reached 134 million people across Ireland, Austria, Hungary, Australia, and the UK, with more than 66,000 users creating safer driving playlists and over 5.4 million minutes of low-BPM driving music generated.
For FM PRO TECH 5, Damian Hanley, Executive Creative Director at Forsman & Bodenfors, breaks down how music, behavioural science, platform data, and creative utility came together to rethink what a road safety campaign can do.
Rather than interrupting entertainment culture, Seat Belters participated in it. Spotify wasn’t just a media channel; it became part of the creative idea itself.
Q1. What was the original insight that made the campaign feel worth building?
The key insight was simple but powerful: People listen to music almost every time they drive. Once we saw the research linking high-BPM music to increased stimulation and risk-taking, it felt like an opportunity to rethink road safety entirely.
Instead of interrupting behaviour, we could work within a habit people already enjoy. That turned music from passive background noise into an active behavioural tool, something capable of subtly influencing mood, focus and decision-making in real time.
Q2. Why was the softer, playlist-led approach more effective than shock tactics?
We wanted an intervention built around participation rather than fear. Most drivers don’t think safety messaging applies to them, but everyone has playlists and favourite songs.
By using music people already love, the behavioural change felt natural and frictionless. In many ways, Seat Belters felt more like a Spotify feature than a traditional safety campaign, which helped audiences engage with it more willingly.
Q3. How did you balance behavioural science with keeping playlists enjoyable?
That balance was critical. If the playlists felt clinical, nobody would use them. The aim wasn’t to remove enjoyment from driving, but to preserve the emotional connection people have with music while subtly lowering the tempo.
The 80 BPM threshold came from research suggesting calmer music supports steadier driving behaviour. But Spotify’s API allowed the playlists to still feel personal by using each user’s favourite genres, artists and tastes, just through a calmer rhythmic lens.
Q4. What does the campaign’s global response say about brands using entertainment platforms more meaningfully?
It showed that audiences respond strongly to utility-led creativity, especially when brands add genuine value to platforms people already use daily.
Rather than interrupting entertainment culture, Seat Belters participated in it. Spotify wasn’t just a media channel; it became part of the creative idea itself. The campaign proved that when behavioural science and creativity are combined thoughtfully, brands can create work that’s both culturally engaging and socially useful.
Q5. How could playlist-based campaigns shape wider conversations around wellbeing and behaviour?
We’re only beginning to explore how everyday digital habits can positively influence wellbeing. Music already affects mood, focus and emotional state, often subconsciously, so there’s huge potential for more intentional behavioural design.
What’s exciting is that these interventions don’t need to feel clinical. They can still feel entertaining, personalised and culturally relevant while encouraging healthier behaviours around focus, stress, commuting or mental wellbeing. Seat Belters showed that even subtle nudges can create meaningful impact at scale.
FM PRO TECH tracks the systems reshaping how music, data, platforms, and behavioural design move from passive experience into real-world impact.
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The most popular low-BPM songs from the Seat Belters global campaign were:
Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran
I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys
Someone Like You by Adele
Perfect by Ed Sheeran
All of Me by John Legend
Let Her Go by Passenger
Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur
Lovely by Billie Eilish & Khalid
When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars
The Night We Met by Lord Huron & Phoebe Bridgers
Fix You by Coldplay
When The Party’s Over by Billie Eilish
Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez
Shallow by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
Say Something by A Great Big World