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Cigna invested a significant amount of time and resources to overhaul their brand messaging. The problem? They didn’t known if their new proposition would get cut-through in a saturated market.
Reason developed a ‘bottom up brand campaign’ which crowdsourced interpretations of their ‘show them you care’ messaging to produce original content that was then shared on Cigna’s paid and owned channels.
It’s a cheap, innovative and effective way to stress-test brand messaging, all while driving engagement with Cigna and their products.
Cigna’s new brand proposition focused on the sentiment of ‘showing your loved ones that you care.’
But, let’s face it – Kiwis aren’t good at talking about their feelings.
So, we asked ourselves: how can we facilitate productive conversations about life, death and caring, and place Cigna’s brand at the heart of these conversations? And while we’re at it, how we can use a crowdsourced approach to exceed the following marketing goals:
We knew that contextually relevant sponsored content, coupled with powerful video content and a creative concept had the potential to boost brand and product awareness significantly.
We also knew that sentimentality for the past is universal and that content with a nostalgic hook appeals to broad audiences.
With this in mind, we crafted an omni-channel campaign centred around the concept of caring for your loved ones. If you’ve ever lost somebody, you know how important it is to say what you need to say before it’s too late. If only you had written down Nan’s Anzac biscuit recipe. Or forgiven your best friend. Or told your Mum “thank you for all the little things you did for me.” After all, there’s no greater regret in life than words of love unsaid.
Crowdsourced content formed the cornerstone of our approach. Users were prompted to fill in a templated letter to a loved one – whether that was a grandchild, child, niece, parent or best friend. 5 letter submissions were hand picked to win a $500 cash prize.
We used ATL radio, influencer content, video content on Facebook and YouTube, and sponsored content on contextually relevant platforms to drive traffic to the interactive letter writing experience on the Cigna site.
A seamless mix of emotive user-generated content and Cigna branded content, this campaign returned a host of rich letter content that offered a real-life glimpse into what Kiwis across the country wanted to say to their loved ones before it’s too late.
We used the letter submissions to craft assets for the second wave of content amplification. Together with our creative suppliers, we produced 15’ and 30’ executions for TVNZ on demand, FB and YouTube pre-roll. By transforming the sentiment of the letters into something moving and tangible, we were able to leverage the key messages from the letter writing competition to encourage viewers to buy insurance with Cigna.
The takeaway: Digital-driven brand campaigns can work when they are unique and clever. This was a distinctly Cigna campaign – it positioned them as an enabler of productive, meaningful conversations between loved ones.
