Advertisements are meant to be disruptive: Jaimit Doshi, Coverfox.com

Online insurance portal Coverfox.com has launched a series of humorous microfilms to engage people to renew their insurance. The campaign, created by BBH India, is a digital innovation on YouTube, consisting of10 videos of 6.5 seconds each.

Using YouTube’s retargeting platform, the campaign specifically tracks down people who visited Coverfox, but didn’t renew their insurance, and then takes over their internet experience. The YouTube pre-roll films feature a Coverfox employee vowing to place reminders all over the internet, to help customers catch their deadline. The reminders then show up in popular videos all through the week, every time the customer visits YouTube.

Jaimit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer, Coverfox.com, pointed out, “Consumers are exposed to myriad communication messages every day, and insurance as a sector is no different. Thus the task was to ensure we reach out to our audience in an innovative way that results in action. In true Coverfox style, we thought why not make it a bit fun. With BBH’s expertise, we put together these crisp films that are entertaining yet drive the message home and chose YouTube, as a medium because that’s where people go for fun and light browsing.”

In conversation with AdGully, Jaimit Doshi speaks further on the campaign...

Why did you decide on using humour as an element in your communication for an area like insurance renewal?
We were very certain that we did not want to follow the monotony of sending insurance renewal reminders either by e-mail or by call to our customers, which ultimately become a blind spot to most people. We were at a place where traditional rules don’t apply. Our focussed objective was to inculcate an element of surprise with a pinch of humour even while reminding people for renewal of car insurance.

Please take us through the process from creative ideation to the final execution of the videos.
The idea and motive to create these YouTube microfilms was to reach out to those customers who visited our website and left without renewing their car insurance. Hence, the messaging right from the beginning was to catch them unaware and remind them of timely renewal of insurance. We wanted to convey the message in crisp and humorous way.

While we were tempted to make many more videos, we carefully chose the topics that were trending, and could grab the most attention. And, in order to heighten the surprise, we only chose those videos that couldn't pass off as TV commercials. We deliberately kept the videos short enough to deliver the entire message within 5-6 seconds.

What were the campaign requirements that you included in your brief to BBH India?
We wanted them to take into account three simple things: The ads needed to be extremely short, should work for YouTube as a platform, and had the signature Coverfox humour.

We were very clear about the fact that we needed to catch our customers by surprise and retarget them with our messaging in the shortest possible time. Customers are exposed to several communication messages every day. Hence, we looked at an innovative way which would result in action. Humour gets people’s attention. Therefore, we thought of making it short, crisp and funny to make the recall effective.

Photobombers are an irritant, do you think ‘Videobombers’ might also be construed as ‘consumer stalking’?
Today, when you carry almost your entire world in your mobile, it gets easier to reach to the customers. Advertisements carry the messages to the customer and are meant to be disruptive. Yet, we consume what appeals to us. Online video advertising is no different. However, if you are powering it with some data intelligence, based on what one has just consumed or historically consumed, it will be relevant. Data seems to suggest that our returning visitors have gone up, hence proven that there’s acceptance.

How challenging is it to market insurance on digital platforms?
With different digital platforms available, it has become easier to reach out to the customers through various mediums. Digital technologies vis-a-vis smartphones, tablet and apps, social media, analytics help to mine business data and apply it into actionable insights. It further helps to interact with and share information among insurer, agent and consumer which highlights the potential market segment to focus on. Once the audience and market is defined, it gets much easier to market insurance products through various digital mediums.

How does retargeting work out, especially in a field like insurance? How is Coverfox leveraging retargeting?
Retargeting is one of the most popular ways of heightening engagement with audiences and pushing them further to honour their timelines. We have used retargeting effectively for several months now to reach out to customers dropping off at key points of our sales funnel. However, the new Coverfox campaign has taken it a notch higher. For the first time, a brand is telling a story through a sequence of video ads with the intensity of the message increasing throughout. Also, by making the ads crisp within 6.5 seconds, the films tackle the problem of the infamous YouTube ‘skip ad’ button, so 100 per cent of the message is absorbed by the viewer before they even have a chance to skip. Further, the reminders also follow the user on several websites, ranging from news sites to e-commerce portals, in the most unexpected ways, effectively through the Google Display Network (GDN), so helps strengthen and amplify the message. We intend to re-connect with a lot of our valued customers and re-align their focus on timely renewal of their car insurance.