Most life insurance brands attempt to appeal to families with cheesy, overly-sweet, mushy gushy messaging. But as a family-owned startup, with a conservative media budget, Ladder Life Insurance could not afford to meld in amongst the category, or fly under the radar, with a typical approach.

The brand recognized a truth: When one family member signs up for a really great life insurance plan, the rest of the family playfully jokes about killing the policyholder.

Open on a dad arriving home from work. He finds flower petals on the ground and sexy music is coming from the bedroom. He thinks his wife has a romantic surprise for him. He heads towards the bedroom, he starts to undress.

Dad enters the bedroom and jumps into bed, lifting the sheets to reveal a giant crocodile. Cut to mom listening in the bathroom. We hear the crocodile and the dad scuffling over the shot of mom with her ear on the door.

A title comes up over picture “Life insurance so good, they’re gonna want you dead.”

Cut back to the dad exhausted, tears in his shirt, standing behind a now closed door laughing to himself as he yells to the family in a “I’m ok guys!”

- Improved top mindedness for the brand by 4x from 2021

- +18% improvement in favorability

- +23% recall amongst 30-45yr olds