Hiscox Insurance is market leader in cyber insurance cover. Small and medium businesses don’t see cyber insurance as a priority. For many it’s a problem for big business. But over 60% of small businesses cease trading after an attack. We needed to make them take the threat of cybercrime seriously. The brief was to dramatize the panic and feeling of being hacked. We decided to humanise the problem to make it easier to understand the problem and impossible for businesses to ignore.

We wanted to dramatize the virtual tricks hackers use – but in a real, physical space. We partnered with Brompton bikes and created a cloned version of one of their stores directly across the street. The new fake brand shop, ‘3rompton’, allowed us to play out real world versions of hacks to the unwitting staff – from mimicking the brand to stealing customers and their stock. We even copied the staff’s looks. To capture real reactions, cameras had been fitted previously in the store under the cover of shooting a documentary. With the fake store being created overnight. The stunt was filmed and shared virally.

Our audience are predominantly small business owners in London and the South of England. Businesses who are exposed to the risk of cybercrime, but don’t keep it front of mind. Like all of us they will watch and share interesting content, but not from an insurance company. Partnering with Brompton got us in front of a wider audience and made the reveal more exciting. Furthermore, Brompton Bicycles is seen as an example of a British Business success story, starting small and going big, so small business owners could empathise with them and their story.

The stunt execution brought together a number of disciplines including, set build, design, and direction. This mirror flip of the business brand saw us hack the Brompton brand in the real world – from secretly designing and building the fake ‘3rompton’ brand shop to casting for identical looking staff. Cameras were fitted in both shops and hidden in covert locations and vehicles nearby. On the day a ‘mission control’ was housed in the basement of a nearby launderette where crew and agency were directing the action and capturing the real reactions from Brompton staff. The stunt took place over the course of a day. Two shifts with alternating staff allowed us to play out the real world hacks twice – allowing more footage to be captured.

The stunt was posted across social channels with 12.5 million views in the first two weeks of launch. Subsequent brand affinity scores reported Hiscox insurance being perceived by consumers and business as the leading and most trusted Provider of Cyber Insurance. The stunt and PR coverage also led to a +22% increase in small business cover policies, a +54% growth in insurance quotes, compared to previous years’ growth levels.