Ambition
A stand-out ad campaign
Home and auto insurance advertising is dominated by massive brands that rely on a relentless drumbeat of billion-dollar TV buys, spending upwards of $600 million a month. Driving awareness against this massive competition is a Herculean task, when AAA Insurance is outspent 50:1 in media dollars.
So, to break through competitive clutter, Deloitte Digital and AAA Insurance created something so shareable that it could spread far and wide without an outsized media buy.
Action
Increase brand discovery by connecting with culture
Deloitte Digital worked closely with CSAA Insurance Group, Rick Astley himself, and Grammy award-winning director Joseph Kahn to create a digital moment that people couldn’t help but share.
We reshot the artist’s iconic music video frame by frame with an InsurAAAnce twist. We worked with Rick to make sure it maintained the spirit and fun of the original. It resulted in the modern remake the internet never knew it needed: The Ultimate Rickroll.
To get the word out? We Rickrolled our audience.
Strategically placed, well-coiffed, unbranded QR codes and cryptic bit.ly links surprised and delighted unsuspecting viewers. From wallscapes, mobile truck billboards, and aerial sky-typing, we used local media to launch in unexpected ways. Something people couldn’t help but share—our film quickly evolved into a global internet phenomenon.
Rick Astley was perfect for several reasons. First, the lyrics of his iconic song reinforce our message. Second, it has multigenerational appeal, which was critical to the brand’s growth strategy; we created a genuine experience for millennials, due to their connection to Rickrolling, and GenX and younger boomers due to their love of nostalgia and the original track. Third, the act of sharing was already intrinsic to the Rickroll phenomenon; and we knew that if we nailed the delivery, our audience wouldn’t be able to refrain from sharing their experiences, effectively becoming advocates for the campaign, and by extension, InsurAAAnce.
This helped us establish InsurAAAnce as a brand worthy of consideration alongside US insurance titans while finding category whitespace and cultural saliency.
We set out to:
InsurAAAnce & Rick Astley Never Gonna Give You Up. Have you ever been Rickrolled? If so, you’re familiar with the viral meme that tricks users into watching Rick Astley’s popular ’80s hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” as a light-hearted bait-and-switch prank. Deloitte Digital, in collaboration with CSAA Insurance Group, tapped into the popularity of the viral internet meme for their latest campaign—The Ultimate Rickroll.
ACHIEVEMENT
A meaningful jump in insurance quotes
Within 24 hours, a new era of Rickrolling had begun—206,000 QR scans from local media placements exploded into +100 million organic views as people shared and reposted.
Celebrities and internet personalities caught on, and our campaign landed the front page of hundreds of major publications. In total, it generated over 700 million US earned media impressions and over 2.2 billion global earned media impressions, transforming a $540,000 media buy into $36 million of earned media in the first week alone—a 65X return.
The campaign had equally impressive impact on core business metrics, and elevated AAA Insurance from a regional brand to a global phenomenon.
What’s next for CSAA Insurance Group?
We’re creating the ultimate boyband. In true CSAA marketing fashion, we’ll continue to use the power of music to connect with customers and build brand awareness. Because who better than the greatest boyband that never was to remind the audience that CSAA will “always be there” for them?
increase in online search YoY
increase in insurance quotes YoY
lift in new policies, generating an 84% increase in insurance premiums
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