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How reviving its original purpose reversed 8

years of decline for NRMA Insurance
15 min read

The Communications Council, Gold, Australian Effie Awards, 2019

SUMMARY
NRMA Insurance, an Australian car insurer, promoted itself as a brand that helps by
encouraging acts of help among the Australian public and showcasing this through OOH and
a film.
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TOPICS

 INSURANCE
 AUSTRALIA

Executive Summary

When it comes to reviving your brand, its original purpose can be easily overlooked. This is
an important reminder that sometimes it's best to go back to your roots, and that
exceptional value can be unlocked by reinterpreting what made your brand great to begin
with.

By embodying Australia's national spirit of 'Help', NRMA Insurance reversed 8-years of

declining customer numbers, despite a growing price premium.

'Help' achieved the impossible, delivering +35.2% in brand value with a projected
incremental profit and an ROI of 287%.

Challenge, Objectives & Strategy

Australians trusted insurers less than banks. At just 53% compared to the global average of
70%1, less people in Australia trusted insurance companies than most other places in the
world.
The recent Royal Commission had only made us doubt them more. We questioned whether
insurers will pay out claims or penalise us with increased premiums if we claim too much or
too often (or at all). Along with credit card lenders, insurers had been hailed as the least
trustworthy within the financial sector. Compounding this, insurers typically only have
contact with customers once a year when their policyis up for renewal. All of which makes
for at best, an apatheticrelationship; and at worst, a potent lack of trust that insurers will be
there to help when needed.

Fig 1: Media Coverage of Growing Distrust of Insurance Companies

Fig 2: Media Coverage of the Royal Commission

The NRMA insurance brand was lost. For just over a year, NRMA Insurance's brand strategy
had centred around the core promise of confidence. A proposition that although true, didn't
really set NRMA apart from other insurers. What's more, the creative execution, 'Mr.
Confidence', was failing to connect with customers and staff alike. Lacking warmth, empathy
and authenticity, the campaign had failed to emotionally engage either audience.

Fig 4: 'Mr. Confidence' Deep Dive, House of Brand, 2016 & Stakeholder interviews, NRMA
Insurance SLT, October 2017
Value driven brands had crippled our market share. A key factor in this decline was the
premium pricing of NRMA Insurance. For an average NRMA Insurance policy, there were
typically 6 cheaper car insurance providers, and 10 cheaper home insurance providers in
market. And instead of lowering its prices to compete with these aggressive value players,
NRMA Insurance premiums were on the rise2.

Compounding this issue, NRMA Insurance don't sell through price comparison sites. This
meant we were missing out on a significant proportion of the market, with 11% of all
customers using aggregator sites3.

Our customer base was shrinking at an alarming rate. We weren't just losing share – our
customer numbers had declined since the start of 2016, and the 'Mr. Confidence' campaign
had been unable to reverse this long-term decline.

Our media investment had gone backwards. To make things even more challenging, we
had to return NRMA Insurance to growth with a media spend that had declined 42% since
2015.

This under-investment contradicted Binet and Field's 'Excess Share of Voice' advice 4, and
NRMA Insurance's market share was shrinking accordingly. It was also in stark contrast to
value driven players Youi and Budget Direct who were following Binet and Field's advice and
investing to grow (see Figure 8).

Fig 7: Les Binet & Peter Field, Marketing Effectiveness in the Digital Era, 2016
Fig 8: NRMA, Youi, Budget Direct, SOV v SOM, AQX Monitored Media Investment Analysis,
November 2017

The strategic challenge:

 To arrest business declines and set NRMA Insurance up for long-term growth in the face of
low consumer trust, aggressive value-driven competitors and declining budgets, while still
commanding a price premium.

What were your objectives?

Business objective: Kick NRMA insurance back into positive customer growth.

 12-month target: Restore total customer numbers to Q2 2016 levels.

 24-month target: Increase total customers.

Marketing objective: Increase customer traffic and quotes.

 6-month target 1: Deliver a 10% incremental improvement on unique visits.

 6-month target 2: Deliver a 10% incremental improvement on website visits.
 6-month target 3: Deliver a 5% incremental improvement in quotes completed.

Communications objective: Increase advertising impact.

 6-month target: Deliver a 10% incremental improvement in advertising awareness.

Social objective: Increase engagement.

 6-month target: Go from 11th to consistently in the top 3 for social share of engagement in
the insurance category.

What was your strategy – and how did you get there?

Given the failure of 'Mr. Confidence' to emotionally connect, we had to go deeper to

understand our audience and the role NRMA Insurance played in their lives.

Uncovering a universal fear. The working hypothesis had always been that people take out
a policy with NRMA Insurance, and pay a price premium to do so, because they have more
to protect. This correlates with the customer base that tends to be older and wealthier. In
short, those who can afford NRMA Insurance, getNRMA Insurance.

However, this presumptive and highly rational picture of the audience failed to revealthe
deep-seated psychological issue that made a premium insurance product like NRMA an
absolute necessity in their lives. Through ethnographic research with NRMA Insurance
loyalists (tenure of +10yrs), we uncovered a powerful emotional fear that transcended
demographics and income levels - vulnerability.

Vulnerability – the feeling of being in freefall. Our loyalists described their vulnerability
when a major disaster hit as the feeling of being in freefall. It's like having a rug pulled right
out from under their feet – stifling their ability to cope, sending their lives into a tailspin.

Fig 9: Customer Qualitative Research Deep Dive, The Lab, October 2017
Fig 10: Customer Qualitative Research Deep Dive, The Lab, October 2017

A distinctive opportunity for NRMA insurance. This deeper understanding of our audience
painted a clear picture of the critical role NRMA played in their lives – which wasn't just to
help protect their physical things, but to be there to offer emotional stability and
understanding at the most vulnerable times of their lives.

A category that just didn't get it. No insurance brand showedany empathy toward this
vulnerability. In contrastthey were more concerned with capturing attention – using
hyperbolic comedy that depicted consumers as hapless fools, rather than vulnerable people
in freefall needing genuine help. It was no wonder most Australians didn't trust insurers.

Fig 11: Competitor Analysis Deep Dive, The Monkeys, September 2017
Help – The true purpose of NRMA insurance. Helping people when they're at their most
vulnerable had always been the most distinctive part of the NRMA brand. In fact, at its best
NRMA was the beacon of 'Help'. Classic 'Help' campaigns by both the NRMA Motor Club and
NRMA Insurance, were still fondly talked about by Australians today.5

Fig 12: Previous NRMA Insurance Campaigns Featuring 'Help' Creative Platform

Extensive social listening also revealed over 52K mentions of 'Help'6 over a 12-month period,
showing that it was still strongly associated with the brand.

While staff interviews revealed that the people at NRMA Insurance still felt a deep
responsibility to 'Help' – seeing it as the number one thing they were there to do. We
uncovered countless stories of staff who in moments of crisis gave people help that went
above and beyond - reinforcing it as a credible strategy that NRMA could truly own, over
any other insurer.

Fig 13: Staff Interviews, NRMA Insurance Customer Services, October 2017
'Help' – a powerful cultural truth. 'Help' was not only true to NRMA's original purpose and
its people, it was also true of all Australians. We are a nation of helpers, and helping people
is an intrinsic part of our national character. From the ANZACs of the past, to the Surf Life
Saving Clubs and 'Mud Army' of more recent times – again and again we have proved
thatwhen we're in a tight spot, we have an extraordinary ability to pull together and help
each other out. In fact, the Australian spirit of 'Help' is at its best, when things are at their
worst – when people are at their most vulnerable.

Fig 14: Societal Examples of a Nation of Helpers (ANZACs, Surf Life Saving Clubs, 'Mud Army',
Townsville flood helpers)

Given its historic credibility, its existing positive equity, its difference to the rest of the
category, its relevance to a vulnerable audience in fear of freefall, and its deep cultural
significance – 'Help' could be a powerful strategic platform for NRMA Insurance once again.

Implementation
To become the brand that embodies the Australian spirit of 'help'

If people were going to believe that NRMA Insurance embodies the Australian Spirit of
'Help' – especially after 'Mr. Confidence' – it wouldn't be enough to simply say it, we had to
actually 'Help'.

So, we launched the new strategy by doing something helpful – encouraging people to 'drive
safe' at Christmas. A doubly smart move considering insurers typically drop their media
spend in summer, giving us a chance to make an impact despite our reduced media budget.

'Drive safely this Christmas'. Whilst Christmas is a joyous time of year in Australia, it's also
the most dangerous time to be on the road7. With Australians travelling long distances to
spend time with family, there are more road fatalities at Christmas than at any other time.

Our first act of 'Help' was to remind people to drive safe this Christmas. Through a
heartwarming tale of an elderly couple taking a road trip to spend Christmas Day with their
loved ones, we delivered our message with warmth and humanity –deliberately distinct
from, but complementary to the government public service campaigns and double demerit
points. TV delivered the emotional impact, as well as the mass awareness we needed.

Fig 15: 'Long Way' TVC, 2017

'Help Is Who We Are'. Drawing from true stories of 'Help' from both NRMA Insurance and
everyday Australians, we followed up this act of 'Help' with a fully integratedcampaign
toembed the new strategy in the hearts of all Australians – affirming that 'Help' is who we
are.

To succeed we needed channels that not only delivered reach but would also do justice to
those iconic moments of 'Help.' Leading with TV was an obvious choice for emotional
resonance and reach – and we also knew it would likely deliver the payback we needed
quickly8.

For launch we created a film that dramatised the innate willingness of all Australians to
'Help' people in times of need, told against the backdrop of the iconic Hunters and
Collector's song 'Throw Your Arms Around Me', which was re-recorded by emerging
Australian singer-songwriter Ayla. The reinterpretation of this iconic Aussie classic not only
gave us a strong emotional hook, it also allowed us to add a more progressive angle to the
platform of 'Help.'

Fig 16: 'Help Is Who We Are' TVC, 2018

But that was just the start.

To truly re-establish NRMA Insurance as the brand that stands for 'Help', we had to be
highly visible. So, we bought large, high impact OOH sites that gave NRMA Insurance a bold
physical presence. Creatively we used photojournalism to capture real moments of 'Help'
that were imbued with warmth and humanity. This approach was in sharp contrast to the
slapstick style of competitors and the contrived 'Mr. Confidence' campaign.

Fig 17: 'Help Is Who We Are' OOH, 2018

Fig 18: 'Help Is Who We Are' Digital, Mobile, Social, 2018

Internally, we ensured 'Help is who we are' mobilised staff by introducing the new brand
idea into every touchpoint from lift media right through to the lanyards.

Fig 19: 'Help Is Who We Are' Internal Comms, 2018

'Stories of Help. To steal share of social engagement away from competitors, we needed to
elevate our content above the usual policy-led messaging and lifestyle images. With the
collapse of community newspapers in Australia – the traditional home of stories about
people committing selfless acts of 'Help' – we saw an opportunity for NRMA to fill this gap.
We championed local heroes of 'Help'across our social channels, showing Australia's spirit of
help is still well and truly alive in our communities.

Fig 20: 'Stories of Help' Social Content Across Instagram, YouTube& 'The Hub', 2018

'Don't Drive Naughty, Drive nice'. Our second Christmas campaign in 2018 sought to
replicate the same formula as the previous year; provide a helpful reminder for Aussies to
stay safe on the road in a heartwarming tone. Only this time, we shifted the focus from
grandparents, to parents and kids.

Working with Marc Forster, acclaimed director of Hollywood film 'Christopher Robin', we
created an emotive TVC that saw a little girl and her magical toy bunny on a mission to help
her stressed dad drive safely. The spot ends with the message "Don't Drive Naughty, Drive
Nice."

Fig 21: 'Don't Drive Naughty, Drive Nice'TVC, 2018

When it came to OOH, we asked kids in NSW and QLD to show us why adults should "drive
nice." Their actual responses were featured in OOH billboards and placed along major roads.
In addition, we released an AR first with Snapchat to spread the message as well as a
bespoke podcast series.

Fig 22: 'Don't Drive Naughty, Drive Nice'OOH, 2018

 Fig 23: 'Don't Drive Naughty, Drive Nice'AR, Podcasts, Internal and Website 2018

Outcome
Business objective: Kick NRMA Insurance back into positive customer growth

 12-month target: Restore total customer numbers to Q2 2016 levels.

 24-month target: Increase total customers

Results:

We immediately arrested our declines in customer numbers by 50% in the first quarter
alone.

 We smashed our 12-month target.

 And we've already surpassed our 24-month target.

What was astonishing was how quickly we hit those targets, having reached our 12-month
target by the second quarter of the campaign and our 24-month target by the third.

Marketing objective: Increase customer traffic and quotes.

 6-month target 1: Deliver a 10% incremental improvement on unique visits. Result: A 16%
improvement in unique visits – 160% of our target.
 6-month target 2: Deliver a 10% incremental improvement on website visits. Result: A 17%
improvement in website visits – 170% of our target.
 6-month target 3: Deliver a 5% incremental improvement in quotes completed. Result: A
10% improvement in quotes completed – double our target

Fig 25: Incremental Web Traffic and Quotes Completed Figures, NRMA Insurance Website
Analytics
 When you compare these figures to 'Mr. Confidence', we see an even bigger improvement
(see Table 2).

Table 2: 'Help' v 'Mr. Confidence' on Average Unique Visits, Visits and Quotes, NRMA
Insurance Customer Growth & Analytics

Communications objective: Increase and advertising impact.

 6-month target: Deliver a 10% incremental improvement in advertising awareness.

 Result: A 31% improvement (3 times our set target).

And unlike the 'Mr. Confidence' campaign we improved our advertising awareness with
declining SOV over time.

Fig 26: Ad Awareness Figures (House of Brand IAG Brand tracking) Against Declining SOV
Figures (Mindshare)
 Ad diagnostics have also shown significant improvements vs 'Mr. Confidence' 9

Table 3: NRMA Insurance Ad Diagnostics, House of Brand, November 2018

Social objective: Increase engagement.

 6-month target:Go from 11thto consistently in the top 3 for social share of engagement in
the insurance category.
 Result: Number 1 in social share of engagement amongst insurers and the financial services
category.

Brand objective: Increase brand value.

 12-month target: Deliver a 10% increase in Brand Value.

 Result: A 35.2% increase in Brand Value – over 3.5 times our target.

Following the resounding success of 'Help,' NRMA Insurance's brand valuation shot up by
35.2% according to Brand Finance. While 100% of the credit can never be attributed to
'Help,' with no other changes to the NRMA product or service, this correlation does indicate
that the campaign played a significant role in this increased valuation.

Fig 27: Australia100 2019,The Annual Report on the Most Valuable and Strongest Australian
Brands, Brand Finance.
And based on the key drivers for how 'brand value' is determined (see Figure 35 below) we
can be assured that a sizeable contribution was made by this strategy and campaign, since
there was marketing investment, we delivered changes to customer perceptions and a
tangible business impact, whilst also commanding a price premium.

Fig 28: Australia100 2019,The Annual Report on the Most Valuable and Strongest Australian
Brands, Brand Finance.

And the impact of 'Help' went beyond our set objectives… we've built mental availability
quicker than expected.

Within two months of the campaign launch, 'Help Is Who We Are' was already on its way to
becoming a distinctive asset for the NRMA Insurance brand. It takes years to build a
distinctive asset, so it's rare that 'Help Is Who We Are' progressed so quickly10. Despite this
research being conducted in the early days of the campaign, it gives us a clear indication of
the strategic and creative power of 'Help' for NRMA Insurance – further reinforcing its
strategic fit and long-term potential for the brand.

Fig 29: Distinctive Asset Grid, Centre for Amplified Intelligence, 2018. Fig 30: NRMA
Distinctive Asset Tracking, Centre for Amplified Intelligence, 2018.
"The fact that the tagline has achieved a high proportion of uniqueness in such a short
amount of time in market is unusual. These initial results are a positive indication of the
association between NRMA and Help. Using a brand's distinctive asset, if the asset is truly
unique and highly recognised and attributable to the right brand, significantly helps drive
mental availability".

Professor Karen Nelson-Field PhD – Executive Director | The Centre for Amplified
Intelligence

We outperformed our other 'Help' campaign.

While not an official objective, NRMA's 'Help' campaign outperformed the Westpac bank's
attempt at muscling in on this space. Westpac's campaign hit the market 3 weeks after our
launch date and didn't come close to threatening NRMA's ownership of this strategy – with
NRMA achieving better cut-through, stronger branding, while evoking a stronger more
single-minded emotional response. This confirms the better strategic fit and creative impact
of NRMA Insurances' 'Help' campaign.

We're restoring trust with customers.

We have made strong gains in key rational statements around trust and security against
some of our key competitors, including Youi who despite their aggressive gains in market
share, have actually lost ground in trust during the period.

Fig 33: 'I'd feel secure having my insurance with this company',' NRMA v Comp (HOB IAG
Brand Tracking)

And we've inspired our internal audience.

Importantly, the campaign has instilled pride in everyone from top to bottom of the
business (see Figure 33).

Fig 34: Internal Quotes from NRMA Insurance Staff

Did it achieve a positive ROI?

Insurance is a slow-moving category. There are only ever 2% of people in market 11 at any
one time and payback in insurance typically takes years not months. So far, our new
strategic direction is still relatively recent, so we've calculated a projected ROI based on the
incremental customers gained.

ROI = 287%

Every $1 spent will generate $2.87 of additional profit.

Consideration of Other Factors

Did we lower prices? No. In an increasingly value-driven market, NRMA Insurance held its
premium positioning and actually increased its prices by an average of 6% over the
campaign period. For an average policy, there were typically 6 cheaper car insurance
providers, and 10 cheaper home insurance providers than NRMA Insurance 12.

Did we increase distribution? No. Over the period from 2015 to 2019, NRMA Insurance has
reduced its physical footprint. Moving from 20 branches, to just 5 branches, and 12 smaller
kiosks. As stated in the challenges section of this paper, NRMA Insurance don't sell through
price comparison sites. This meant we were missing out on a significant proportion of the
market, with 11% of customers using aggregator sites13.

Were there any seasonal contributions? No. There are no significant seasonal variations
within the insurance marketing calendar. We also compared each quarter with the same
quarter the previous year to further discount any seasonal variation.

Did any new products enter the market? No. NRMA Insurance did not releaseany new
policy types at the time.

Did we spend more than ever before? No. As we've stated, our media spend was the lowest
it had been since 2013. And we've also shown declining SOV over the course of the
campaign versus the previous 'Mr. Confidence' campaign.

Did NRMA Motoring & Services activity boost our campaign? No. There was no significant
activity from the "other NRMA" brand. Anecdotally we heard that our 'Help' campaign had a
positive impact on their business.

Overall Story
There are many obvious lessons one can draw from this paper; whether it's the power of
emotion, the need for integration or the necessity to listen to consumers. But brand building
is more than a process or a science – it's a subtle art – of which we think there are four
important lessons…

1. To make an established brand great again, find out what made it great in the first
place. Often in our search for originality, we can be too quick to discard a brand's
strategic legacy. Along the way, brands get lost, confused and diluted. By re-
embracing 'Help', we managed to ignite the emotional power of the NRMA
 Insurance brand, cut through the category clutter, and tap into a powerful brand and
cultural truth.
2. Don't fall into the category trap. One of the most obvious things to do in a low
involvement category is to shout for people's attention – using humour and going for
maximum saliency. From the AAMI girls and 'Sunny' of Suncorp to Captain Risky,
insurance loves a convenient executional vehicle. This case study is a great example
of bringing a distinct tone of voice to a category and connecting on a deeper, more
empathetic level. One which goes against category norms and taps into the deeper
sense of vulnerability customers can feel.
3. Enduring ideas need fresh cultural truths. We could have created a fresh execution
of the old 'Help' campaign, purely focusing on the help NRMA Insurance gives. What
breathed new life into an enduring idea, and made it relevant and resonate, was the
wider cultural significance 'Help' plays within Australian society today.
4. Mental availability does drive growth. There is lots of discussion and consensus
about the importance of building mental availabilityfor brands. This paper is further
proof that building mental availability isn't just a theoretical buzz word in marketing -
it genuinely works. NRMA Insurance shifted its entire marketing approach from
product and retail to pure brand building at the end of 2017 - and it has paid off big-
time.

Media Addendum
Budget Elaboration

Since our media budget was at its lowest levels since 2013, our approach was to go for high
impact in a comparatively shorter amount of time. This was counter to the 'Mr. Confidence'
approach which was more consistently sustained over a longer period.

So yes, in practical terms this means we did outspend the category at the start, but we had
to. NRMA Insurance needed to re-establish itself in a market that included some well-
established and creatively consistent brands like AAMI and a range of aggressive price-
driven competitors like Youi and Budget Direct. And as it turned out, the competitors
ultimately responded to our provocation by upping their spend by a factor of 2.1 on average
by the end of the campaign period.14

Critically this means our approach to budget allocation carried more inherent risks – as we
double downed our investment to a short window, leaving us with little leeway for course
correction. But as this paper outlines, that decision was ultimately vindicated with a strong
ROI and a return to growth for NRMA Insurance

Owned Media

The NRMA Insurance corporate website featured key campaign imagery. The campaign was
also pushed through NRMA's social platforms and was distributed internally at the IAG head
office via lift media, staff bags and lanyards.

Sponsorships
NRMA Insurance were sponsors of the Brisbane Broncos Rugby League team at the time of
the campaign, but this partnership was not activated as part of it.

Communications Touchpoints

External: TV, Digital Video, OOH, Radio and Social Media.

Internal: IAG corporate lift media, staff bags and staff lanyards.

ABN – 84 140 893 152