Old Mutual is a large and established player in the South African risk product market. The brand is recognised and trusted by its customers. Its risk business has always formed a core part of its business, however, in recent years the focus has shifted to investment business. This shift, coupled with a perceived lack of innovation in the risk product offering, has affected sales and market share. In January 2001 Old Mutual embarked on reinvigorating the life insurance category by developing and launching a new risk management plan, Greenlight. Greenlight is a risk management plan that evolves as the clients’responsibilities, goals and needs change.The communication objectives focused on:Capturing the imagination of and gaining the buy-in from Old Mutual’s distribution channels.Capturing the imagination of the media and financial service commentators.Appealing directly to the needs of the target market and market the product’s key features ie it can be customised, is designed for you, it evolves as your life changes, it offers the certainty that it is living assurance that grows and changes as you do.In the past risk products were always sold never bought. This attitude needed to be turned on its head. Old Mutual needed to change the way people think about life insurance and challenge their perceptions. They had to revitalise the category and make it exciting, desirable – something to talk about. This formed the basis of the campaign – advertising that clearly communicated Greenlight’s benefits in a unique, fresh and impactful way.It was established through research that the target market, Upper Middle Income to High Net worth clients, viewed insurance as “…an outdated, static and standardised process that leaves me wondering if I’ve wasted my money. I need more than just temporary peace of mind, I want to feel certain that’s it there”. The task was thus to capture their imaginations and this required seeking alternative and innovative messages and mediums for communication. The clients were specifically requiring confidence in the future of the product, having the knowledge about what was available to them and understanding the risk they were covered for. To communicate the unique benefits of Greenlight we had to avoid clichés, eg “life doesn’t always go according to plan, you need life cover in the event of those unforeseen circumstances”, and therefore we had to avoid clichéd advertising mediums.Ogilvy & Mather RSTM used channel planning to identify and rank possible channels to best reach this target market and then developed the media strategy using the take-out from the channel planning exercise. We identified airports through the channel planning process as a key opportunity to reach the target market. After a thorough examination of all the opportunities available at airports, travelators were identified as the ideal medium due to the inherent characteristics of the medium and its synergy with Greenlight. To the best of our knowledge no one else has used this medium before, certainly not in South Africa, and it afforded us the opportunity to communicate with the target market in a fresh and innovative way. The idea was conceived and developed by the Media Team and the client. The creative execution was adapted to suit the medium. As this was an innovation the Media Team identified a suitable media partner and became an integral part of the negotiation process with The Airports Company of South Africa. The project received the go-ahead after a three-month negotiating process. This submission is special because the media choice supported and reinforced the task of capturing the target market’s imagination through the use of an alternative and innovative medium. The medium also required experimentation with paint/techniques to prevent the application from cracking when moving through the grooves.Our media strategy recognised the fact that the target market is bombarded with advertising messages and to achieve “breakthrough” would require a special strategy.

We identified airports as an important opportunity to communicate with our target audience, as they often fly on business or leisure. The December holiday period was identified as a key period in which to reach the target market due to an increase in flying. Travelators at Johannesburg International Airport provide us with an ideal opportunity to communicate with the audience. The medium lends itself beautifully to the campaign and negates all the stereotypes ie outdated, static and standardised. By definition a travelator moves and therefore reinforces and supports a key feature of the product, ie flexibility, as illustrated through the copy line “Life insurance that keeps pace with you”. This campaign should be a winner because of the innovative and clever relevant use of a new medium to support a new product.

The idea was conceived and developed by the Media Team and the client. The creative execution was adapted to suit the medium. As this was an innovation the Media Team identified a suitable media partner and became an integral part of the negotiation process with The Airports Company of South Africa. The project received the go-ahead after a three-month negotiating process.