Posted by American Family Brings Insurance to Reality TV
What do you do when you want to get your message to a large audience—but your topic typically makes people change the channel?
American Family Insurance decided to tackle this challenge by turning insurance into a reality TV show.
The company teamed up with Disney Advertising to produce Designed to Last, a reality TV competition that’s being called a “first of its kind.” In a four-episode series that premiered May 5th and will stream on Hulu, teams of architects, inventors, and engineers compete in a series of design challenges centered on home preparedness and protection against scenarios like wind, water, fire, snow and ice.
Maria Menounos hosts the reality show, which also features award-winning contractor, Eric Eremita, alongside designer Wendell Holland, who serve as judges. The victorious team will win an enviable $100,000 grant.
American Family Insurance CMO, Sherina Smith, says Designed to Last taps into the popularity of streaming and the appeal of reality TV competitions, while giving the company an opportunity to “engage more deeply with consumers” on issues of home preparedness.
“We wanted to take advantage of the fact that people sit down and binge TV shows,” said Smith. “We wanted to lean into that trend with consumers…to bring compelling information that’s also edifying.”
John Campbell, senior vice president of entertainment and streaming solutions at Disney Advertising, added that Designed to Last “shows what’s possible when brands invest in content that’s audience-first.” He described the move as “a signal that we’re seeing in the marketplace of how we’re redefining advertising and content.”
To be fair, it’s not an entirely original tactic. Other brands have experimented with turning to different methods of content marketing, such as branded films, to garner more consumer interest, including brands like E.l.f. Cosmetics and Garage Beer. Others like P&G and Marc Jacobs have tested the waters by producing micro dramas in place of traditional ads.
In a culture of increasingly shorter attention spans, will entertainment become the best form of advertising? Can entertainment hold consumer attention long enough to effectively convey messaging about tedious or mundane topics? American Family Insurance aims to find out. Read the full article.