Election Insurance
Esurance
Issue 39 | June 2016
Agency
Leo Burnett Chicago
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Britt Nolan Creative Director: Brian Shembeda, Jeff Candido ACD/AD: Rene Delgado ACD/CW: Jono Paull Art Director: Brian Marcus Copywriter: Gretch Zachan
Production Team
Production Company: The Gentlemen Directors: The Gentlemen Executive Producer: Greg Jones Line Producer: Jonathan Becker Editorial House: Utopic Editor: Craig Lewandowski Editor: Kat Pryor Executive Producer: Heather Mitchell Producer: Tim Allan
Other Credits
Account Director: Susan Stefaniak Account Director: CJ Nielsen Account Supervisor: Abby Bridgeo
Date
April 2016
Background
As “Insurance for the Modern World,” Esurance is a brand that understands the kind of social conversations people are having today – whether it’s through events like the Super Bowl or even a popular “holiday” like April Fools’ Day, the brand recognizes the value of participating in these relevant, timely conversations and cultural moments. With 28% of voters considering a move to Canada should the “wrong" candidate win the presidency, Esurance created “Election Insurance."
Wanting a fun way to raise awareness of its real-life home insurance policies, Esurance tapped Leo Burnett Chicago to create an April Fools Day stunt that would grab the attention of people across the nation. On April 1, (April Fools Day), Esurance became the first insurance company to offer home protection to US voters for the next four years while they wait out the next presidential term abroad.
Idea
Following the success of “Presurance,” Esurance leveraged another opportunity to insert the brand into the cultural conversation around April Fool’s Day and join this year’s U.S. presidential election buzz. On April 1, Esurance introduced “Election Insurance,” a homeowners insurance policy that will protect and maintain abandoned homes as policyholders flee the country to wait out the presidential term abroad. This spoof campaign aimed to raise awareness of Esurance homeowners insurance.
The spot ended with the following disclaimer: “Disclaimer: Election Insurance is not available in any states—it’s, of course, an April Fools joke. Likewise, the company is not liable for any walls erected after your departure and assumes no legal or financial responsibility if your assets are redistributed for the greater good in your absence.”
Esurance and Leo Burnett created a thorough communications ecosystem to drive scale with a strategy involving paid media, earned media outreach, community management and influencer engagement.
Results
Esurance became a media darling with its April Fools Day stunt. By April 1, Esurance was effectively propelled into the center of April Fools stories, appearing in “Best-of” roundups and garnering attention from some of the biggest media outlets in the country such as “Good Morning America,” MSNBC, “ABC World News Tonight with David Muir,” BuzzFeed, “Inside Edition,” The Washington Post, Mashable, TIME, People, Vox, Mediaite and Fast Company. Chuck Todd, the political director of NBC news and moderator of “Meet the Press,” tweeted out a link to the video with the comment, “When you know you’re helping an advertiser, but feel the April Fools’ joke was funny enough to share anyway.” “Election Insurance” secured more than 300 earned media placements and more than 450M earned and paid media impressions. These placements also included 38 social media posts, reaching 57M social followers and sparked 7k likes, favorites, shares and re-tweets. Coverage was shared 6k times by readers and influencer outreach generated an additional half million impressions.