The Ingress AXA Shield

Background

AXA wanted to talk to a tech-savvy audience about what, on the surface of it, is boring – insurance. Embarking on a new partnership with Google Niantic Labs, the idea was to position AXA as the first insurance company that offered protection in both the physical and the virtual world.

Idea

Ingress was the alternative reality mobile game from Google Niantic Labs, played by 10m people in 200 countries. They competed for territory to determine the fate of the planet.

Working with Ingress' creators, AXA was integrated into the game's story. 20,000 AXA retail outlets around the world became the interactive portals for players. Within the game, they could discover AXA health programmes but most desirable, however, was the AXA shield, which protected players.

A story of two star-crossed lovers, based on Romeo and Juliet, was inserted into the experience taking the protection promise to a whole new emotional level.

Results

Almost 400,000 players visited the AXA Agencies in real life. 2.8 million AXA shields were deployed allowing gamers to protect their positions.

1.9 million cumulated daily games actions were generated by AXA agencies.

AXA interacted physically with over 33,000 players at Ingress live events.Thousands of positive interactions for AXA on social networks were generated.

Our Thoughts

Gamers aren't just millennials. People well into their thirties still play games. So this idea has a broader reach than may at first seem evident. More to the point, it has made a pretty dreary subject (insurance) both fun and relevant. Worth a Silver at the very least for that. And another for bridging the gap between online and offline by getting players to start at their offices. And a third for being present and talking to gamers at live Ingress events.