There’s been quite a bit of talk about TV advertising in the protection market over the last 18 months. First, renowned IFA Tom Baigrie tried to get the industry to take part in a generic campaign. This failed to happen because of the sums of money involved or perhaps because providers felt the main beneficiaries would be Aviva. So Aviva went ahead on their own and gained plaudits for their tear jerking take on ‘Ghost’ starring Paul Whitehouse promoting the need for life cover. They went on to provoke outrage in Twitterland with their supposedly intrusive bookending of Downton Abbey ad breaks.

People might expect me to jump on the critical band wagon given that Aviva is a major competitor but I won’t. I applaud their campaign. But the clamour for more of the same from other providers is unnecessary. For a start a whole series of different protection TV ads would fast become boring, and there are many other communications channels that we can exploit to suit our different budgets.

Undoubtedly good TV advertising is good for brand building. And some certainly stick in the mind for many years because they are memorable (possibly cheesy) and describe the product well and create the desire. Ask most people my age about ‘Shake ‘n Vac’ and we would be able to sing the words, “Do the shake and vac and put the freshness back”. Others stick in the mind because they are annoying. When the Go Compare Opera singer comes on I want to stick my foot through the TV, but my wife beats me to it by either hitting the mute button or changing channels. Annoying or not it embeds the brand in the brain.

“Let’s not under-estimate the potential for other channels to promote the value of protection”

Now of course we have social media. And I don’t just mean Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It is possible to produce a very professional video advert quite cost effectively (the latest iPhone 4S has the highest level of broadcast quality 1080HD capability) and host it on YouTube and then seed it across many web channels. Coming up with a video that goes viral, while promoting your product and brand is the new Holy Grail. Do a YouTube search for a ‘Mother Cat cuddling a Kitten’ – over 100 million hits. Look for ‘Buttery Biscuit Base’ – a hilarious rap song put together using hundreds of clips from Master Chef – 3 million hits. Imagine producing something like that that promoted your brand, or protection product, or your adviser firm.

So hats off to the Ghost and Downton Abbey campaigns, but let’s not under-estimate the potential for other channels to promote the value of protection.

Published on My Introducer