Long Term Campaign
Metzgerlehner must quickly help to anchor the new image of Rentenanstalt, which has hit the headlines
Metzgerlehner must help to quickly anchor the new image of Rentenanstalt, which has hit the headlinesBy Luca Aloisi The string of bad news from Rentenanstalt continues unabated. But creative accounting or not, secret holding company or not: on November 1, Switzerland's largest life insurer will launch a new image campaign. This is intended to communicate the strategic return to core competence.
"In the current situation, it is important to set an example. The campaign is a component of the new strategy presented in September," says Corinne Pellerin, Head of Marketing at Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt. And: "If you don't communicate, you won't be noticed."
But when communication has to deal primarily with crises, the public's attention is often focused on the headlines rather than the claim of a new image. Seen in this light, the Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt campaign, which has been awaited for months and is intended to anchor the newly focused pension business, is being launched at a very difficult time. The lack of unity between word and deed gives the emotional presentation the aftertaste of a contradictory deceptive maneuver with euphemistic motifs and messages. On the other hand, the campaign, which focuses primarily on TV and print, is launched at the most urgent moment with the claim "Providing for life is life". Although the market leader among Swiss life insurers - with over 500,000 private and 2,8500 corporate customers - has not placed any advertising this year, its previous message "Get the Swiss Life Feeling" is still present. With the disadvantage that its brand claim has long since mutated into "blues feeling" following the daily scandal reports in the vernacular. In addition, the people who folded their arms behind their heads thanks to Swiss Life products and thus boldly flaunted their financial sovereignty became all the more present in the public eye the more Rentenanstalt got into trouble.
Pellerin brushes aside concerns that the new image strategy could make the product even more expensive by saying that "the campaign is being financed within the framework of the annual marketing budget and therefore has no impact on the price of insurance benefits". And in the current climate, expenditure has been deliberately kept as low as possible. "Compared to other insurance companies, Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt traditionally spends its advertising francs sparingly", she adds.
However, unlike its competitors, Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt has to make up for the mistakes of a reckless financing and growth policy during the stock market boom, in addition to regaining the trust of its tarnished brand. It may be that it is "only" speculation, rumors and half-truths that have cast the traditional company in a bad light. Labels such as the "unsettler" (Blick), the "rake" (Finanz und Wirtschaft) or "weak leader" (NZZ), "dilettante" (Mittelland Zeitung) with a "casino for the Group management" (SonntagsZeitung) are etched deeper into the collective subconscious than any marketing manager would like.
Slimming program also strengthens image impact
However, the decisive factor for the relaunch was not the recent negative headlines, but the long-prepared strategic return to the traditional core competencies of the life insurance business and the retreat to the core markets. The full stop resulted in restructuring and a complete overhaul, which is reflected at marketing level in a streamlining of the 50 products currently on offer into around seven thematic areas.
Customers are no longer to be approached from the product side, but from the perspective of their different problem areas in pension provision, depending on their life cycle. With this verticalization, the market leader wants to develop a high-involvement product from a low-interest product. The streamlined approach with the modular insurance solutions already appears more market- and consumer-oriented in the first brochures.
Just as the new claim reflects Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt's new focus on holistic, integrated pension provision in all phases of life, the main implementation idea of the Metzgerlehner agency also reflects this concept of pension provision. Marco Lehner, CD and copywriter, was guided by the idea that in modern life management, active provision is a lifelong process, similar to learning. "The visuals therefore show a cross-section of everyday life."
You can risk money, but never risk your reputation
The creative team derived the equal sign from the double Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt logo because it symbolizes the basic motif of the new image campaign and at the same time represents the link to the emotional images. "While the previous campaign was characterized by static figures, people in everyday situations should now achieve a high level of identification and bring dynamism to the corporate image," says Corinne Pellerin, explaining the paradigm shift at the visual campaign level.
The spot also uses tasteful images to emotionalize and activate pension provision as an indispensable part of modern life. In addition, the multi-faceted, romantic aesthetic of the series of images is intended to help win back trust in the insurance company and position it as the number one national provider of pensions in line with the new strategy.
It remains to be seen whether the public will accept the message and, like the shareholders at the recent Extraordinary General Meeting, express their confidence in the Group's top management. At present, however, the evasive maneuvers in the matter of Long Term Strategy AG are creating a deep gulf between corporate branding and the actual corporate culture. The scandal-ridden investment company of the Group Executive Board is also alleged to have speculated with Rentenanstalt's equity. As competitor XL Winterthur International quotes the
Real estate magnate Donald Trump with relish: "You can always risk money, but never risk your reputation."
"In the current situation, it is important to set an example. The campaign is a component of the new strategy presented in September," says Corinne Pellerin, Head of Marketing at Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt. And: "If you don't communicate, you won't be noticed."
But when communication has to deal primarily with crises, the public's attention is often focused on the headlines rather than the claim of a new image. Seen in this light, the Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt campaign, which has been awaited for months and is intended to anchor the newly focused pension business, is being launched at a very difficult time. The lack of unity between word and deed gives the emotional presentation the aftertaste of a contradictory deceptive maneuver with euphemistic motifs and messages. On the other hand, the campaign, which focuses primarily on TV and print, is launched at the most urgent moment with the claim "Providing for life is life". Although the market leader among Swiss life insurers - with over 500,000 private and 2,8500 corporate customers - has not placed any advertising this year, its previous message "Get the Swiss Life Feeling" is still present. With the disadvantage that its brand claim has long since mutated into "blues feeling" following the daily scandal reports in the vernacular. In addition, the people who folded their arms behind their heads thanks to Swiss Life products and thus boldly flaunted their financial sovereignty became all the more present in the public eye the more Rentenanstalt got into trouble.
Pellerin brushes aside concerns that the new image strategy could make the product even more expensive by saying that "the campaign is being financed within the framework of the annual marketing budget and therefore has no impact on the price of insurance benefits". And in the current climate, expenditure has been deliberately kept as low as possible. "Compared to other insurance companies, Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt traditionally spends its advertising francs sparingly", she adds.
However, unlike its competitors, Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt has to make up for the mistakes of a reckless financing and growth policy during the stock market boom, in addition to regaining the trust of its tarnished brand. It may be that it is "only" speculation, rumors and half-truths that have cast the traditional company in a bad light. Labels such as the "unsettler" (Blick), the "rake" (Finanz und Wirtschaft) or "weak leader" (NZZ), "dilettante" (Mittelland Zeitung) with a "casino for the Group management" (SonntagsZeitung) are etched deeper into the collective subconscious than any marketing manager would like.
Slimming program also strengthens image impact
However, the decisive factor for the relaunch was not the recent negative headlines, but the long-prepared strategic return to the traditional core competencies of the life insurance business and the retreat to the core markets. The full stop resulted in restructuring and a complete overhaul, which is reflected at marketing level in a streamlining of the 50 products currently on offer into around seven thematic areas.
Customers are no longer to be approached from the product side, but from the perspective of their different problem areas in pension provision, depending on their life cycle. With this verticalization, the market leader wants to develop a high-involvement product from a low-interest product. The streamlined approach with the modular insurance solutions already appears more market- and consumer-oriented in the first brochures.
Just as the new claim reflects Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt's new focus on holistic, integrated pension provision in all phases of life, the main implementation idea of the Metzgerlehner agency also reflects this concept of pension provision. Marco Lehner, CD and copywriter, was guided by the idea that in modern life management, active provision is a lifelong process, similar to learning. "The visuals therefore show a cross-section of everyday life."
You can risk money, but never risk your reputation
The creative team derived the equal sign from the double Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt logo because it symbolizes the basic motif of the new image campaign and at the same time represents the link to the emotional images. "While the previous campaign was characterized by static figures, people in everyday situations should now achieve a high level of identification and bring dynamism to the corporate image," says Corinne Pellerin, explaining the paradigm shift at the visual campaign level.
The spot also uses tasteful images to emotionalize and activate pension provision as an indispensable part of modern life. In addition, the multi-faceted, romantic aesthetic of the series of images is intended to help win back trust in the insurance company and position it as the number one national provider of pensions in line with the new strategy.
It remains to be seen whether the public will accept the message and, like the shareholders at the recent Extraordinary General Meeting, express their confidence in the Group's top management. At present, however, the evasive maneuvers in the matter of Long Term Strategy AG are creating a deep gulf between corporate branding and the actual corporate culture. The scandal-ridden investment company of the Group Executive Board is also alleged to have speculated with Rentenanstalt's equity. As competitor XL Winterthur International quotes the
Real estate magnate Donald Trump with relish: "You can always risk money, but never risk your reputation."
