Hiscox has installed billboards across 17 UK towns and cities that are mis-sized, incorrectly installed and appear to have been duplicated. Uncommon’s wry humour is making the specialist’s value to SMEs palpable in an un-ignorable OOH campaign. There are also special builds. Mud is splattered across one poster site to highlight a client mess up, while seemingly exposed wires dramatise electrical hazards, for example.
The campaign also includes ads with witty copy that tell the stories of familiar blunders for small business owners, dramatising the risks and challenges they face, through a series of wryly-told scenarios. The campaign line is The story of your business, underwritten by Hiscox.
The purposely disastrous executions run across outdoor and press. They include a blank newspaper wrap for the Metro accompanied by inside and back page ads that read ‘you missed the deadline to supply a front page for your client’s cover wrap and now they’re threatening to get legal.’ As well as a WeTransfer takeover.
The full campaign includes posters, OOH, DOOH, radio ads, digital marketing and public relations activity.
While the initial launch targets SMEs, a core audience for the insurer with executions to target insurance brokers also launching this week, a campaign aimed at high value homeowners is expected towards the end of this year or early 2024.
Fiona Mayo, UK marketing director, Hiscox UK, stated, “Hiscox is a different type of insurer. We are specialists, not generalists and our advertising reflects that. In a category that’s often serious and cautious, we’ve created a campaign with a distinctive visual approach and intelligent humour that’s rooted in deep insight, to stand apart.”
Lucy Jameson, co-founder at Uncommon, added, “We’re proud to share our first work for Hiscox — which is quite literally, the most disastrous campaign ever. From typos to burst pipes — this playful outdoor work uses multiple special builds to bring to life real stories of the risks and challenges that affect business owners today.
In the insurance category which usually plays it safe — this message is bold and brave — differentiating and elevating Hiscox’s people focussed offering, with a provocative new tone of voice.”
Tom Laranjo, chief executive officer, Total Media, added, “Hiscox’s latest campaign creates a compelling narrative that any small or medium-sized business owner will be able to relate to. Leveraging our behavioural science expertise, Total Media is ensuring that narrative lands with the right people at the right moments. Driving the brand’s message of support for small business owners across multiple fronts including out of home, print and radio, we are aiming to build an understanding of its specialist expertise that SMEs can rely upon.”
Credits
Client: Hiscox
Creative Studio: Uncommon Creative Studio
Photographer: Chieska Fortune Smith @ Supervision New York
Media Agency: Total Media & Posterscope
