Following the success of the Aflac College Football campaign on both broadcast and web platforms, Aflac sought to extend its impact to social media. Our goal was to create a distinct and authentic presence on the platform, leveraging Aflac's long-term spokesperson and former Head Coach at Alabama, Nick Saban.
The primary objective was to effectively convey Aflac's core brand message, "There are gaps in your health insurance coverage, and Aflac can help you close those gaps." To achieve this, we strategically embraced platform-specific trends, aiming to generate breakthrough awareness and education among college football fans.
To successfully engage college football fans on social media, we decided to feature the iconic Crimson Tide college football coach on TikTok. Not only is Saban well-known in the industry—but he’s also known for being a very traditional, old-school coach who doesn’t do social media or participate in social trends.
Recognizing the need for a strategy beyond simply repurposing our television commercial for the channel, we decided to lean into the hugely popular, platform-specific trend: ASMR.
ASMR, short for autonomous sensory meridian response, involves creating videos that simulate sensory experiences by featuring elements such as whispering, crisp sounds, and slow movements. These diverse sensory triggers aim to induce relaxation, provide comfort, and even facilitate sleep among viewers.
While Coach Saban's ASMR content is buzzworthy on its own, the content ladders perfectly into Aflac’s strategy for this campaign. Since ASMR is known for being calming and soothing, it was the perfect juxtaposition next to the stress of having gaps in your health insurance coverage. Not only did this content capitalize on popular platform trends, but it did so in a way that helped communicate the core brand message in an unexpected way.
Convincing Nick Saban to dive into ASMR proved to be the campaign's biggest challenge and success. Despite his initial skepticism, Saban's dry and humorous delivery ultimately elevated the content, making it stand out and captivate the audience. Fans could not believe that Saban was on numerous social platforms participating in a trend as modern and quirky as ASMR.
The campaign effectively conveyed Aflac’s core brand message of emphasizing the gaps in health insurance coverage and how Aflac can help college football fans bridge this gap. The proof lies in the campaign results:
We consider this campaign a success due to its high-profile representative, buzzworthy content, and strategic engagement with platform-specific trends.
