Allianz Australia certainly captured attention with its latest campaign, Flight of the Finch, with highly emotive visuals and the 2000s ballad I’m With You by Avril Lavigne.
The film, directed by Michael Gracey (who also directed The Greatest Showman), paired with the soundtrack, created an emotional response from audiences, with many on social media admitting to tearing up and feeling moved.
Laura Halbert, General Manager, Customer Strategy & Marketing at Allianz Australia, told Mediaweek that building an emotional connection was key to success.
“We were very aware our industry often leans heavily on rational messaging and that is one of the reasons we are so proud to have taken a bold, emotionally resonant approach, we feel we are redefining what care looks like in insurance via this brand promise – and that is everything.
“So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve received so many lovely messages across all channels from customers taking the time to reach out to us and share their heartfelt reactions, often saying the story felt deeply personal.”
Lauren Halbert
The Allianz eagle, the finch and Avril Lavigne
With creative delivered by Howatson+Company, Halbert explained the story of the eagle and the finch acts as a metaphor for how Allianz supports customers through life’s challenges and a “powerful visual representation” of their promise to be the “care that customers can count on.”
Meanwhile, the song choice was an opportunity to draw on nostalgia. She said: “From the moment we heard the track “I’m With You” we knew it was the one.
“It perfectly evokes all the feelings you can only hope that someone will feel when they watch a TVC, and for many of our customers, we knew it would bring back lots of nostalgia.
“Not to mention, we’re big fans of Avril – she’s an icon!”
Balancing impact with creative
Allianz worked with media agency partner Wavemaker to amplify the brand’s message across channels and to set out three pillars – Knowing, Showing and Acting – to effectively launch the proposition to market and align the brand’s campaign with tailored media placements.
Through knowing, Allianz and Wavemaker launched on national screens, buying across screens, adjusted for attention.
“We balanced reach with impact through both creative formats (launching with 60s creative) as well as media touchpoints (from Cinema to TV and Online Video, to Social video and OOH).”
In showing up, the brand and agency dove deeper into media properties where the care was in context for its strategic audiences, from care for self, care for the household, and care for others.
“We sponsored TV programs such as Parental Guidance, Royal Flying Doctor Service and Once in a Lifetime and partnered with popular podcasts like The Imperfects, This Glorious Mess on Mamamia and Two Doting Dads,” she said.
Allianz also shows brand actions with support for Australian Football (via Football Australia Partnership) and the Blue Eagle initiative with The Block’s Scott Cam that aims to help Aussies with prevention problems and protect their homes.
Taking ‘Care You Can Count On’ across the customer experience
Allianz says they are working on embedding the ‘Care You Can Count On’ ethos into every part of the business, from the culture of care and customer experience.
“That includes redesigning digital journeys to be more intuitive and empathetic, training our teams to lead with care in every interaction, and launching proactive initiatives like the Allianz Blue Eagle program, which helps homeowners proactively care for their properties through accessible resources.
“Whether online, on the phone, or face-to-face, our goal is to make every interaction feel supportive and human.”
Allianz is measuring the success of the rebranding with a combination of brand tracking, customer feedback, and business metrics.
“That includes NPS, brand sentiment, retention rates, and new customer acquisition.
“We’re also closely monitoring how the campaign influences perceptions of trust, care, and reliability – because those are the foundations of long-term loyalty.”
Key learnings and what’s next for the Finch story
For Halbert, in overseeing customer strategy and marketing, she and her team and four learnings from the brand launch including the power of emotional storytelling in building brand differentiation and trusting the process when working with CGI.
She also noted the importance of internal alignment and said: “our people need to live the brand promise for it to be authentic.”
Rounding it out is collaboration with “teams across creative, media, and customer experience teams is what brings a platform like this to life.
“We couldn’t have done it without them,” she added.
Looking ahead, Halbert said this campaign is just the beginning of delivering on the brand’s promise.
However, she kept mum on follow-up instalments to ‘The Flight of the Finch’ story.
She said: “We’ve already seen some exciting work in the last couple of weeks, such as our Seat Belters partnership with Spotify, but trust me when I say, there’s plenty more to come!”
Top image: Laura Halbert