InvoCare Group

InvoCare, headquartered in Sydney, is a leading provider of funeral services in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. It also operates private memorial parks and crematoria in Australia and New Zealand.

InvoCare is continually seeking to innovate by adopting new approaches, exploring new opportunities and utilising new technologies to assist client families in farewelling their loved ones.

In line with its commitment to Innovation, Vocation and Care, InvoCare’ cemeteries and crematoria are responsive to the changing needs of the communities they serve. This adaptability is evident in the introduction of new developments and memorial sections tailored to the needs of specific cultural or religious groups. Notable examples include Asian sections designed with the advice of Feng Shui advisors and elaborate crypts, vaults and family mausoleums favoured by many European communities.

InvoCare’s memorial parks and cemeteries are subject to constant development, with regular introductions of new sections and ongoing development work. The rapid pace of these changes renders traditional map suppliers and satellite imagery, often outdated by five years or more, insufficient for accurate navigation within these venues.

InvoCare is dedicated to supporting clients, their families, and friends at critical times in their lives. This commitment involves not only compassion, exceeding expectations, and delivering outstanding service but also providing clear and comprehensive maps to facilitate straightforward navigation across all their sites.

The team at Mobiddiction conducted a thorough review of the available satellite imagery for each memorial park in NSW and QLD. They found that this imagery was not sufficient to create accurate and up-to-date maps for most of the venues. The absence of a consistent source of on-ground surveys, construction drawings, or section plans further complicated the process. Additionally, the size of the sites made regular on-ground surveying an impractical and costly method for gathering updated data.

Considering the specific locations and any airspace restrictions, the team identified drone overflights and aerial photography as a viable option. This approach would enable the rapid generation of hundreds of overlapping, high-resolution images that are accurately geolocated. These images could then be post-processed into a single, comprehensive image for each venue.

Our specialist mapping design team at Mobiddiction worked with InvoCare Group’s marketing and comms team to define with a map style guide that complied with the relevant parts of the corporate style guide.

This style guide included consistent design elements for roads, buildings, trees, lakes/ponds, signage, and POI (Point Of Interest) icons. There is also a design language with consistent and reusable elements for the various industry specific map requirements and features such as the various memorial options, crypts, and vaults, and religious or culturally specific sections like their Lung Po Shan Chinese Memorial Garden.

All the source maps are in layered vector files, so additions or changes to the map as new development work at venues occurs are simple.

Small or well-defined changes are mostly able to be done from plans, descriptions, and photographs. For larger changes we can use localised drone missions without needing to overfly the entire venue again, thanks to the geo data saved with each aerial photograph taken.

The geo reference maps showing up to date on-ground memorials will allow the creation of a tool to create and maintain a database of memorial site locations.

Truly, one of it’s kind and a first of it’s kind. We thank the team at InvoCare for having given us this opportunity.