esure

How do you rev up an insurance brand that’s been dormant for over a decade?​

And stand out in a fiercely competitive but low-engagement category that inspires customer anxiety and vulnerability?

esure is an established brand with spades of cultural capital. Despite it being 15 years since the original ‘Calm Down Dear’ ad aired on TV, there’s still an 82% prompted awareness today. ​

​
It was marketing gold – but we needed to build a whole new meaning and connection around it.

The ‘Calm Down, Deer’ campaign was born.​

​Introducing Dave O’Deer – a fluent device that allows us to tell a wealth of messages in a completely ownable (and en-deer-ing) way.​

​With his ear-piercing scream, Dave embodies the anxieties UK drivers and home owners can go through when faced with those dreaded panic moments when they might need to turn to their insurer. These are dispelled by the understanding and reassuring voice of esure – Lorraine Kelly –and the promise you can be sure with esure.

The TVC ranked in the top 2% of insurance ads with the leading marketing research and testing platform, System1.

“In a category starved of emotion, where half of consumers feel nothing towards insurance advertising, this is a brilliant example of how to win by going against the grain. Too many brands stick to category conventions because it feels safe and proven, but safe doesn’t build memory. Distinctiveness does. What esure shows is that real cut-through comes from zigging when others zag, breaking the patterns of the category and doing something genuinely different.” Andrew Tindall, Chief Growth Officer at System1