The Insight: With so much uncertainty these days, consumers are seeking a feeling of security, of knowing they are covered and protected.
American Family Insurance is a mid-sized, midwestern company operating in 19 states. It’s a 98-year-old brand with a strong reputation. The average age of the American Family Insurance consumer is 55 and, without new, younger consumers, that would increase to 57 by 2025. To continue to grow as a business, the brand must attract younger consumers without alienating the base.
Insurance, an undifferentiated, historically low-involvement category, has recently been thrust into the spotlight - and not in a good way. The increasing frequency and severity of storms, coupled with increasing inflation is driving up the cost of coverage and repairs. Meanwhile, consumers are navigating
economic factors like financial insecurity, increasing debt and cost of living but experiencing a weakened customer experience and decreasing brand loyalty.
In the fight for consumer attention, companies like Geico, Progressive, State Farm and Allstate are spending billions of dollars to entertain and distract, rather than educate and engage. In order to capitalize on this moment and win with the under-40 audience, we needed to clearly communicate and reinforce the unique value of American Family Insurance by redefining what insurance means.
The Idea: Life’s Better When You’re Under Our Roof Because when you feel totally protected, You can enjoy the dreams you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Insure carefully, dream fearlessly.
The activation: We turned our logo into a powerful visual mnemonic establishing the red roof as the creative centerpoint reinforcing the benefits of being a customer
American Family Insurance is a well-established, midwestern insurer with a 98-year legacy, serving customers across 19 states. The average age of the American Family Insurance consumer is 55 and, without new, younger consumers, that would increase to 57 by 2025. For sustained growth, the brand needs to engage younger consumers while maintaining loyalty among its existing customer base. In other words, we needed to win with the under 40 audience by clearly communicating and reinforcing the unique value of American Family Insurance by redefining what insurance means. We made deliberate choices that centered on the new general market and addressed their frustrations and needs, leaning into the notion that culturally relevant storytelling has broad relevance and the power to break through the clutter. We sought to remind them that insurance is about dream protection, and we are in the business of inspiring, protecting, and restoring dreams. The main idea is “Life’s better when you’re under our roof” and we honed in on this concept in a couple different manners.
Firstly, we transformed our logo into a powerful visual mnemonic. Our roofline is the perfect vehicle to represent deeper meanings of protection, safety, and a place to dream. We also amplified the brand's sonic and visual elements.The campaign blends the fantastical (a roofline floating in midair) and the realistic (personal slice-of-life stories) while achieving breakthrough with intentional music choices that position the jingle as the soundtrack of the brand, seamlessly integrating it into our music selections. And,
we looked to elevated customers and their dreams to be the brand’s stars. We flipped category and cultural tropes to tell meaningful and authentic stories across multiple audiences, reflecting our audience in the way they want to be seen. We subtly subverted stereotypes, showing a range of scenarios with a dream being realized or protected, in which a home is a launch pad, and cars are conduits.
Our go-to-market approach focused on outsmarting versus outspending and focused on fewer, bigger, better. We grounded the campaign in high impact placements and partnerships that reinforced our red roofline of protection and positioned the brand as relevant and meaningful to our audience, including brand ambassadors like Derek Jeter, and key entitlements like Summerfest (Milwaukee), Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta), and American Family Field (Milwaukee).
And lastly, to lean into our bold visuals and cinematic campaign, we ran in theaters in our top 10 markets during peak summer blockbuster months and chose high profile locations paired with bold, arresting visuals in key cities in our footprint that made the roofline stand out–from bus shelters to billboards.
