Weird winter campaign from Axa and The House
For its new winter campaign, «How Can You Stay Safe This Winter?», Axa Winterthur is relying on digital communication channels and surprising effects. Under the slogan «The Unexpected Winter Challenge,» the agency The House has created an interactive campaign designed to raise awareness of winter road hazards with a touch of humor.
Axa Winterthur has launched a somewhat different prevention campaign in collaboration with The House. At the heart of the campaign "How do you get through the winter safely?" is an interactive film in which users learn about what are probably the craziest interpretations of winter safety in twists and endings that they can determine themselves. The main protagonists are Danger Dan, Mad Mary and Wicked Waldo, all of whom do not fit into the image of the otherwise conservative insurance world at all, but instead de-ice their doors with flamethrowers or clear the windows of ice with a peeing dog.
"Of course, the videos deliberately play with the element of exaggeration," explains Mélanie Gujan, Head of Brand & MarCom Management at Axa Winterthur. Nevertheless, the background of the campaign is quite serious: "As the only Swiss insurer with its own accident research, the topic of road safety is central to us, and very topical, especially in winter. We want to draw attention to our side in a humorous and surprising way. Axa.ch/winter on which serious safety and winter tips are written, in order to make the population aware of the issue."
Focus on digital media and social networks
The winter campaign was conceived and implemented by the Zurich agency The House. "Developing the campaign was an exciting challenge for our team, as storytelling for digital media requires special new and surprising concepts. With nine different endings in the film and the microsite extension, the basis for a varied production was established," says Andreas Jorgella, partner at The House.
The campaign was additionally used through display advertising, video and social ads, various ad formats on Facebook (responsible: Hutter Consulting) as well as POS measures in various formats and adaptations for internal channels and promoted at various events such as the Arosa Humorfestival or Art on Ice. In addition to the interactive film, which is not entirely serious, Axa Winterthur imparts valuable safety knowledge in an informative quiz and involves the online community with an attractive competition: anyone who shares a winter tip or takes part in the quiz can win, among other things, a driving training course in Lapland or a sled dog ride with huskies. "Through the gamification element as well as user-generated content, we focus on interaction with our customers; with the multichannel approach, we can deliberately align our measures with the trigger weather and play our media measures where it is snowing and slippery," says Mélanie Gujan.
Using augmented reality to achieve the surprise effect
Another highlight of the campaign is the augmented reality action at Zurich main station. From January 25 to 27, Axa Winterthur will transform the main concourse into a virtual winter wonderland. "By using this new technology, we are combining our prevention efforts with innovative ways of accessing our customers - and at the same time creating a surprise effect among passers-by," says Mélanie Gujan.
Responsible at Axa Winterthur: Mélanie Gujan Diserens (Head Brand & MarCom Management), Claudia Suter (Head Brand & Advertising), Raphael Schmid (Project Manager Events), Sebastian Suter (Brand & Advertising Manager), Robin Brügger (Content Marketing Manager), Julia Wunsch (Head Social Media) Anja Wagner (Head of Digital Design). Responsible at The House: Grischa Rubinick (Executive Creative Director), Patrick Meyer (Creative Director Copy), Manuel Steiner (Art Director), Stephan Ziegler (Senior Art Director), Carolin Widemann (Art Director), Laura Jaggi (Graphic), Andreas Jorgella (Strategy), Paola Gächter and Esra Yigit (Senior Consultant), Nico Podgorny (Director Consulting), Guy Collé (Director IT & Development), Stephan Suter (Media Director), Luzian Storrer (Media Consulting), Markenfilm Schweiz (Film Production), Noël Dernesch (Director), Sven Germann Photographer GmbH (Photography), Rohner Retouche (Image Editing), Jingle Jungle (Sound). Responsible at Hutter Consulting: Thomas Hutter (owner and managing director), Florian Muff (consultant).
