After running in print, radio and out-of-home over the last three years, insurance brand Hiscox has brought its ‘Most Disastrous Campaign Ever‘ to TV, with a series of CTV ads apparently going wrong in a variety of ways that are sure to keep playout teams up at night.
Marking the company’s first time on TV in almost 10 years, the campaign is running across ITV drama, Channel 4’s Gogglebox and the World Cup, alongside BVOD, SVOD and YouTube.
VideoWeek asked Ed Birth, Head of Brand Marketing at Hiscox, about the company’s return to TV, how the campaign came together, and how broadcasters felt about the subversive nature of the ads.
What was the motivation to return to TV after 10 years?
TV is a powerful channel with high potential reach and impact. Econometrics studies often rate it highly and there is good data to show that it is particularly effective at creating positive synergies with other channels. Having established our campaign in print, audio and digital spaces, we think it’s the right moment to introduce TV to our mix, maximise that media multiplier effect and take the campaign to the next level.
What are the biggest changes you found in TV advertising compared with 10 years ago?
The biggest change is that things are simply more fragmented. And therefore the definition of ‘TV’ is much broader. Our approach has been to treat broadcast, VOD, BVOD and CTV as one ecosystem rather than thinking about them in isolation, but things are undoubtedly more complex.
In the recent past media agencies and client teams might have had totally different teams handling different platforms. For example you’d have traditional TV planners and buyers for broadcast and then VOD would often be planned and bought through a digital team who were used to trading programmatic web banners. Thinking about TV as one ecosystem requires teams to have a wider knowledge across platforms and broader skills, so that is the complexity. But the benefit is better plans that sync together more effectively than siloed plans.
There are also fewer shared cultural moments on TV, but live sport remains one of them, which is why we’re very happy to be advertising in World Cup programming this summer.
The TV campaign cleverly shows what can go wrong when running CTV ads – what are some of the biggest dangers to watch out for in CTV campaigns?
Our campaign plays a lot with context and we thought it would create great impact if we could be disruptive with this format – cutting through the noise by creating a genuine ‘what’s going on here?’ moment with each execution.
I actually think the biggest danger for a Hiscox TV campaign (or any TV campaign) is blandness. I see too many ads that aren’t trying hard enough to stand out from what’s beside them. You can’t assume the audience’s attention, you have to earn it.
I think we raised a few smiles with playout teams. In actual fact we worked very closely with the broadcasters to make sure our ‘disasters’ were the right side of the line – surprising but also resolved within the ad, so people didn’t actually think their TV had broken or that their broadcaster had lost the plot.
We knew fairly early on that some of our ideas might raise eyebrows with broadcasters so our approach was to involve them super early in the process at script stage, before anything had been filmed. That meant lots of emails and calls but the broadcasters appreciated the early engagement and embraced what we were trying to do. Some broadcasters were more cautious initially than others, but we got to a place where everyone was happy, as well as Clearcast. I think that would have been much harder if we’d sprung the ads on them at the eleventh hour.
What was the thinking behind the channel mix, and what role does YouTube play in the campaign?
The channel mix is designed against our audience and to maximise reach while balancing sensible frequency. You get better incremental reach by combining channels and platforms, which is why we’ve opted for a blend. Different platforms skew to different demographics, so a combined plan helps mitigate that.
Our YouTube buy is specifically ‘big screen’, so people streaming YouTube on their TV rather than on their mobile. So really what we’re trying to do is replicate the scale and impact of big-screen linear TV advertising, but accessing a subset of the audience that might not watch a lot of linear or BVOD programming.
What have the results of the campaign been so far, and what effects are you measuring on the TV side?
I can say that the broader campaign has led to a big step change in brand health metrics and web searches, which has contributed to a record year for Hiscox direct business insurance sales, as well as providing a following wind to the wider business.
For TV specifically we will look at a combination of brand health shifts, short-term quote/sales metrics and longer-term econometric modelling. The campaign is still in flight so results are pending but early signals are promising.
Follow VideoWeek on LinkedIn.
