The Situation: Sanlam is a South African Life Insurance Company. To celebrate their hundredth birthday, Sanlam launched a campaign titled, “For Generations to Come”. A year long campaign, focused on helping South Africans build a better future for all.

The Brief: We were tasked to communicate Sanlam’s thought leadership about the challenges we face as a society in the future.

The Objective: Capture people’s imagination and get people to imagine how radically the world will change in the future. As well as getting the public to think about how they can better prepare for a future that is radically different.

The 200 Year Old is a scripted audio docudrama set in 2218 telling the story of a woman born in 2018 becoming the first human being to reach 200 years of age. The series was created as an audio drama to best capture people’s imagination and take them to places that can not yet be seen. We created the world of the 200 Year Old by doing extensive research and consulting with some of the world’s leading experts on the research and technology of the future. Although fictional, all details were based on current science and future predictions to ensure the series was credible and the details were believable. Five episodes were created that explored how someone could live to 200 and what the financial, social and personal impact of living that long may be. The episodes were hosted on all major podcast platforms.

We identified the biggest issues that will affect future generations economically and built communications on credible expertise. Using techniques from the entertainment world rather than advertising to create a deep level of engagement in content. We put earned media at the heart of the idea to increase reach and credibility. We also ensured that we didn’t rely too heavily on podcast listeners to achieve breakthrough by partnering with traditional radio and running an extensive PR campaign. The aim was to create content that got people thinking about the world of the future. Starting a conversation about how to plan for a better future, which put Sanlam at the heart of the debate.

The series was hosted on all major podcast platforms (iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Google Podcasts) and launched in partnership with CliffCentral (a South African online radio and podcast station) and several local radio stations. It was also hosted on a campaign webpage. To launch and promote the series we relied on techniques from the entertainment world rather than advertising world. To build an audience we promoted the podcast with movie style launch trailers on social media and used key actors featured in the podcast in an extensive publicity campaign. We created a Twitter profile for the 200 Year Old where the character interacted with fans, commented on topical events and tweeted in the voice of the character. Giving the 200 Year Old a voice beyond the content covered in the series. The campaign ran from June to August 2018.

Campaign duration June - August 2018

The 200 Year Old became the number one podcast on South African iTunes during launch month.

An estimated 182 000 hours + of content was consumed.

66,659 microsite visits with an average 5.4 minutes spend on the site.

Social media engagements: 1.1 million +

Editorial Earned Media impressions: 74 million*

X17 Return on Investment on PR with 95% of editorial including a brand mention.

Brand upliftment: 10% increase in perceptions of thought leadership, 14% increase in perceptions of unique positioning and 8% increase in brand affinity. As an established, well-known brand these results represent a significant impact across the functional and emotional attributes measured.