Travelers is the insurance company that cares. Their promise is: “You’re in the company of care.” But it’s hard for an insurance company to prove that in an industry with stigmas.

Each day, nine people in the U.S. are killed by distracted driving. Travelers Institute—created to engage in public policy—wanted to create an authentic campaign that would educate on these dangers, and ultimately save lives. Done effectively, this would demonstrate that Travelers really cares. Rather than showing up with a check, the company wants to prevent accidents altogether.

Beyond that, the objectives were to raise awareness of Travelers Institute for Distracted Driving, start social conversation about distracted driving, rise above conventional insurance advertising, and—at best—to even impact distracted driving legislature.

The Travelers CMO said: “To save even a single life with this campaign would be a success.”

Each day, distracted driving kills nine people in the U.S. In today’s world, we are more distracted each day. But most conversation about road safety centers on texting and driving.

We worked closely with families of real victims whose lives were cut short due to distracted driving. Then we wrote and crafted an Unfinished Story for each in a series of films, each imagining what could have been had the driver not been distracted.

Each film used a distinct animation style that best captured the story. “The Treehouse” combined CG characters with woodcraft-like feel to handmade scale models [?]. “The Stage” used Pixar-like CG (and an Oscar-shortlisted singer), and “The Route” mixed real camera techniques with 2-D hand-drawn style.

The animation and live action were blended in a way that allowed viewers to get lost in the animated story, before bringing it back to the sobering message at the end.

Texting while driving is dangerous. But no one talks about the danger of driving while distracted by food, GPS, makeup, etc. Each day, nine people in the U.S. are killed by distracted driving.

Most anti-texting conversation uses scare tactics and McLachlan-like [expand reference] content too sad to watch. Instead of creating another PSA people would avoid, we needed something people would share. So we leaned into care [Sense?] and reframed the conversation.

Rather than shaming the driver, we advocated for the victim and celebrated what their life could have been.

By working with real families we showed that distracted driving doesn’t discriminate and established an emotional connection with the audience. We told the stories using animation— something heartfelt and human in a category of statistics and sameness.

By timing the release of the films with Thanksgiving—the deadliest day on the roads—we sparked a conversation about an issue long neglected.

Release Dates:

* Launch: Unfinished Story “The Route” – 11/19/2018 (leading up to Thanksgiving, the deadliest holiday on the road)

* Launch: Unfinished Story “The Stage” – 2/21/2019

* Launch: Unfinished Story “The Treehouse” – 2/21/2019

Distribution Method:

* YouTube, YouTube Pre-Roll (Discovery & Trueview)

* Paid Social (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)

* Paid Influencer Program

Cost Per Unit to Produce:

* ~$200K each (Total: $600K)

* Media spend: $800K

By releasing the campaign before Thanksgiving—the deadliest holiday on the road—we started a conversation about an issue long neglected:

146M+ impressions

14% increased distracted driving social conversation

13% increased brand sentiment

43X more traffic to the site than normal—as much traffic during the first ten days as the entire year prior.

People took to social to talk about it had impacted their driving habits:

“Think of this film next time your phone rings.” -@BobAbate

“Beautiful reminder from a family in pain and on a mission.”-@gbrandman

Even competitor insurance brands tweeted about it: “With the holiday season hustle, please…pay attention while driving.” -@Prodigy_Insurance

Five months after the campaign launched, Minnesota—the home state of two of the Unfinished Story victims—passed a hands-free bill, making it illegal to hold a phone while driving.