Aviva Canada

Few consumer categories create as much antipathy as insurance. People perceive it as a grudge purchase, and see their premiums as lost money – hardly the sort of scenario that breeds leadership brands. Aviva wanted to “shake up the sleepy category” and redefine the relationship to operate on the customer’s terms. The challenge to Taxi: deliver a message to a jaded audience, not to change its mind overnight, but to lay the ground for change – both in the way Aviva would approach the service it offers and in how customers would come to feel about the company.

Research found a second and equally important insight: for people to be more open to communication about Aviva’s products and services, a mea culpa was required.

Through humour and a forthright spokesman, the introductory creative tapped into Canadians’ latent dissatisfaction with their insurance providers. The television component depicts ordinary people who give insurance brokers a taste of their own medicine (think shark feed).

Additional media delivered on more targeted objectives. Drive-time radio and OOH reached drivers during rush hour, often an unpleasant experience in itself. A microsite (changeinsurance.ca) ran visitors through a gauntlet of frustrations, but also allowed them to share their thoughts on how insurance could be improved. And to generate awareness among employees, an internal communication program was launched that included posters, signage, postcards and a tongue-in-cheek puppy screensaver.

Within a single month, the campaign achieved 45% awareness, along with a 300% increase in aided brand awareness. And as a demonstration of the chord the campaign struck with Canadians, Aviva received thousands of suggestions from consumers on how to change insurance for the better.