The archive · Advertising · Product decision · 2021
Nissan's Shwii gives Waze Zulu voice commands that sound like the danger itself
TBWA\Hunt Lascaris built Waze's first Zulu voice assist for Nissan — onomatopoeic commands carry the warning in the word, no translation needed.
Nissan
What it had to solve
Waze ran in 98 languages but had no Zulu option, even though Zulu is South Africa's most widely spoken home language — its only local options were English and Afrikaans. Nissan wanted Zulu drivers to get hazards communicated in a language they actually speak.
How it works
Waze is the crowdsourced navigation app drivers use to avoid potholes, traffic and even police checks. It supported 98 languages, yet Zulu — the most widely spoken home language in South Africa — was not among them: the only local options were English, the country's fifth most spoken language, and Afrikaans, its third.
Nissan and TBWA\Hunt Lascaris answered with 'Shwii by Nissan', the first voice assist on the Waze platform built on Zulu onomatopoeic voice commands. The commands communicate the danger inside the word itself, so the sound does the warning and drivers do not have to translate a foreign prompt into a split-second decision.
For Zulu-speaking drivers the difference was practical: hazards were announced in the language they actually think in, and the need for translation disappeared at the moment it mattered most — on the road.
The idea entered the D&AD awards archive under Radio & Audio and became one of South Africa's shortlisted campaigns at the 2022 D&AD Awards, an early sign that a global app's language gap could be closed from the local market rather than the headquarters.
Why it lands
- The fix addressed a real gap: Waze ran in 98 languages but none of South Africa's most widely spoken home language.
- Onomatopoeia removed the translation layer — the sound of the command itself carried the hazard.
- The utility lived inside an app drivers already used, so the message arrived at the moment of need.
- Language inclusion was delivered as function, not claimed in a separate ad.
What it did
For the first time Zulu-speaking drivers could navigate Waze by voice in their home language, with warnings whose sound carried the meaning — and the work became one of South Africa's shortlisted entries at the 2022 D&AD Awards.
What you can take
Serve a neglected language as a product, not a poster: when a warning is built from the sound of the word itself, the function proves the respect — and the utility is the message.
Since then
The campaign was shortlisted at the 2022 D&AD Awards in Radio & Audio and drew recognition on South Africa's award circuit as proof that locally made language technology could work inside a global app. It stayed part of Nissan's South African story as an example of putting drivers' own language at the centre instead of translating a safety message into it.
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