Objectives

100 YEARS IN THE MAKING: OUR QUEST TO REMAKE OUR 100-YEAR-OLD BRAND.

Our objective was clear: To bring to life, in a highly engaging and emotional manner, the lead brand messaging that AAA exists to help our Members navigate the roadblocks in life, instilling the confidence they need to live their lives more freely and with greater assurance ... feeling enabled by AAA to "Outsmart LIfe".

For over 100 years AAA has been the 'protector', the guardian of people taking road trips and exploring the road of life. Borne out of our latest Brand Tracker consumer research, the goal was to pivot = to evolve from the role of protector (that it was AAA doing this for you) to one of 'enabler' (that you, as our Member, are able to do great things in life). Consumers were giving us permission to ascend to the idealized positioning that with AAA by and on their side, no matter what obstacles life throws in your way, that they've "got this!"

We have over 6-million passionate, diehard Members in our Club, and nearly 5,000 Team Members who are equally diehard loyalists to our brand. We knew that, as the trusted partner that our Members carry in their wallets and throughout their lives, our new Brand Campaign was going to need to be designed to refresh and reinvigorate the role that our brand plays in their lives ... without losing a single one.

Strategy and Execution

THE REMAKING OF A BELOVED BRAND, COMMUNICATED ON A VERY HUMAN LEVEL.

Our new aspirational spot (in :30 and :15 for TV, and :45 for web usage) was crafted to establish a higher-level, top-of-funnel positioning for AAA, providing a much-needed halo effect for all of our other product line marketing. It led the way for the development and use of new branded spots and other omnichannel marketing assets that would leverage the 'confidence' positioning, cascading down that messaging -- in a more consistent, cohesive, and compelling fashion -- to more strongly benefit our core lines-of-business.

This being the very first brand TV spot ever produced by our AAA Club, there was a tremendous amount of excitement around it and lots of expectations that it would accomplish what we needed it to do = remake what we stood for as a brand. As our own CEO, Tim Condon, is fond of saying, "We have a powerful purpose behind our brand, so let's make sure we let our Member know why we do it." This aligns with Simon Sinek's 'Golden Circle' best practices approach, which we used to help strategically find our center, our "why" = to allow our Members to live more confidently ... to experience greater freedom from the doubts and things that hold them back in life.

Our insights research told us that doubt is a powerful and emotional aspect in the lives of our Members, working its 'dark magic' to hold them back in life. So our new brand TV spot needed our brand personality to shine through ... to impactfully showcase the sentiment that AAA has your back, enabling you to confidently outsmart that doubt and live life more fully.

Our new "You've Got This" brand TV spot launched in mid-November 2020, providing us with the initial air-cover we needed to seed the 'confidence' positioning with our audiences in our markets, strongly aligning with our desired shift from 'protector' to 'enabler'.

Results

WHEN YOU RESONATE WITH PEOPLE, EMOTIONALLY, THEN YOU HAVE SUCCESSFUL BRANDING.

Within the first few days of the spot's airing, we realized: (1) a flurry of new/incremental traffic to our website (the vanity URL), (2) an increase in new/incremental calls to the special vanity toll-free number, and (3) the beginnings of market acceptance as evidenced through posts in social media and in emails we received from Members (even quoting back to us how they felt empowered with "I've got this" messaging).

Full tracking data / analytics, including perceptual shifts for key brand attributes (reputation, confidence, trust, etc.) won't be available until we conduct our post-wave research in late spring. Anecdotally we've witnessed a very positive response by consumers (Members and prospects) to this brand campaign, plus:

• The spot has had the added benefit of energizing our own employees (we refer to them as Team Members), getting them fired up about this new branding effort, and how the positive impact it was making with them would cascade down to benefit our follow-on marketing ... and, equally important, their excitement for the refreshed and renewed AAA brand.
• This campaign has now opened the doors to a series of new marketing campaigns and deliverables supporting our key lines of business (Membership, Insurance, Home Security, Identity Protection, Travel, Auto Repair, Financial Services, etc.), leveraging the 'confidence' ethos throughout and across all channels (top-, mid- and bottom-of-funnel).

Here at AAA, we have fully embraced our quest, led first by our new Brand spot. For no matter where our Members see and interact with us ... and our Team Members embrace and advocate for us ... the AAA they now see and feel is one that has their backs and champions the cause of "You've Got This" (because you've got us)!

Media