Beneva shows how much its employees care

Who: Beneva, with lg2 for strategy and creative, Cinélande for production (directed by Jean-François Asselin), Post 430 for post-production, Circonflex for sound, and OMD for media.

What: “Good People,” a bilingual ad campaign promoting the new insurance brand, which arose out of last year’s merger between La Capitale and SSQ Insurance. Beneva formally started operating this year, with lg2 also designing the company’s web platform and mobile app.

When & Where: The campaign debuted late last month, and is running until March 24 across Montreal TV stations including CTV and CBC. Slightly different web versions of the ads are running in the other provinces until March 14, complemented by a radio spot.

Why: Despite Beneva’s 75 years of experience in its former guise, the campaign is about conveying the company’s missions to return insurance to its original meaning of people protecting people.

lg2 creative director Éric Chavagnac said that the campaign represents a deliberate attempt to distinguish Beneva by moving away from the “entertaining disaster” angle that has become a mainstay of insurance advertising. Instead, the various creative assets focus on Beneva’s core attribute: Caring.

How: The two 30-second video spots open on a Beneva home or auto insurance customer talking with a friend about how quickly and capably Beneva went about addressing their claim. In both cases, the customer mentions how in addition to addressing their claim, Beneva employees are really good people.

Both spots then cut to humorous depictions of Beneva employees caring for those around them—whether it’s naming a pizza delivery guy employee of the month; to an employee walking on his hands so as not to dirty a custodian’s freshly mopped floor; to another employee literally giving a co-worker the shirt off his back after he spills coffee on himself.

A radio ad features a woman outlining all of the ways Beneva employees went above and beyond to assist their clients, from Dave waiting until 11:11 to call back a superstitious client, to Lucy whispering the details of a contract to a client who has just returned from the spa. After each description, a barbershop quartet chimes in with refrains like “That’s really nice” and “Gee, that’s so nice.”

“We developed the ‘Good People’ platform in collaboration with our clients,” said Chavagnac. “It was an easy jump from there to making employees the ambassadors. All we had to do was add some good-natured humour to their innate kindness and professionalism.”

And we quote: “We are very proud to bring Beneva to life. It’s a new brand with 75 years of experience, and right from the start, one thing was clear: The human dimension had to be at the heart of our service offer. The different ad campaigns created by lg2 successfully highlight this differentiating element. With the agency’s digital expertise taking our transformation one step further, we can now say that this synergy has resulted in a brand that beautifully reflects the people behind our name.” — Stéphane Morency, executive vice-president and leader, strategy, customer experience and marketing, Beneva

Chris Powell