Desjardins and Bleublancrouge have launched a new wave of ads in the “A Policy is Not a Person” platform that launched last year. The campaign, with media by Glassroom, is running through May 29 across TV, online, radio (terrestrial and streaming), out-of-home, social and search.
The video ads from Untitled Films (directed by Mark Gilbert) are presented as a game show called Know Your Client, which pits knowledgeable Desjardins agents against an insurance policy in a series of trivia questions about their respective client.
While the Desjardins agents have all the answers to questions like “What kind of car does your client Sanjay drive?” (a three-row SUV) and “What kind of home improvement did your client Lee recently make?” (re-doing the basement with a playroom for the kids), the insurance policy is, of course, unresponsive.
Bleublancrouge executive creative director Chris Dacyshyn said the campaign is designed to put a human face on Desjardins at a time that the insurance business is becoming increasingly impersonal—with a new wave of players enabling consumers to select their policy online.
“Our agents are not looking to make a quick sale and then say goodbye,” said Dacyshyn. “They’re looking to see that you get the right home, auto or life insurance to meet your changing needs, over time. What’s right for you when you’re first getting married is probably not still right for you when you’re having kids or when you’re retiring, for instance. Desjardins is all about building a valuable long-term relationship with an agent. And they can’t do that without getting to know you first.”
Game shows have long been reliable fodder for advertising, with companies as diverse as Johnsonville, Orbitz, Old Navy and U.S. insurance brand State Farm all turning to the format over the years.
In a 2005 interview with The New York Times, Doug Ryan, then CMO at Y&R, explained that the commercial format was popular because viewers’ familiarity with the format means there’s no need to spend a lot time setting up the situation.
We bet even that insurance policy could have solved this puzzle though.
