By using targeted media to publicly and unexpectedly kill our brand mascot, we took potential customers on a simulated journey of what it’s like to suddenly lose someone close(ish) to them. From death, to mourning, to life insurance claim, every channel was implemented to make apathetic young New Zealanders understand the importance of life insurance first-hand, for when they themselves pass away and leave loved ones behind. Every touchpoint laddered up to our engagement piece; a data-gathering exercise disguised as a promo.

LifeDirect is New Zealand’s leading life insurance aggregation website. For almost ten years, the face of the brand has been their obscure mascot ‘Simon the Sloth’ – a lethargic, animated character who, not surprisingly, had lost relevance. We were tasked with reinvigorating the brand, and driving leads, awareness, and web traffic amongst New Zealanders 25 – 35; a demographic with an ever-increasing responsibility to insure themselves for the benefit of their dependents. The problem is, they view death as a distant, irrelevant issue.

As a real-time demonstration of the unpredictability of life, and the significant benefits of life insurance, we killed off our longstanding mascot, Simon.

The strategy was simple: use targeted media to take apathetic consumers on a comprehensive journey of losing someone close(ish) to them.

First up, we pushed Simon off a cliff on ‘live’ TV – 25 national channels during primetime, aired just once - leaving viewers with nothing but unanswered questions. As intended, this whipped up a social media ‘WTF’ storm. The following day, we published a full-page obituary in the national dailies, announcing that Simon had died, but he’d failed to specify his life insurance beneficiaries. This was supported by digital outdoor and a 'memorial video' from LifeDirect staff on their social channels. Kiwis who ‘knew’ Simon were then invited to share stories about their relationship with him, in order to win a slice of the pay-out. Perhaps you were his long-lost twin? Or an ex-lover from his days in the Navy? As well as sharing the stories via the entrants’ social channels, the microsite was essentially a hub for data collection, gathering email addresses and redirecting visitors to lifedirect.co.nz upon completion.

32% increase in site traffic (lifedirect.co.nz)

44% increase in brand preference

17,000+ microsite visits

8,691 unique entries

9.6% increase in quotes

12.7 million impressions