American Family Insurance is dedicated to inspiring, protecting, and restoring our customers' dreams. In order to serve effectively in this role, we need to understand the dreamer – both what makes them move forward in their dream pursuit and what holds them back.
AmFam learned, through in-depth consumer research, that dreamers often don't pursue their dreams because they don't feel the support or encouragement of their friends and family. The brand used this insight as the foundation to build an engaging, personal campaign that would run throughout the second half of 2015.
The objective of AmFam's "Signs of Support" campaign was to increase brand awareness and engagement by showing how AmFam supports dreams on a personal level. Rather than urging viewers to get a quote or locate an agent – a CTA more befitting our competition – we used our brand marketing efforts to show our company's commitment to dreamers and encourage others to show support for the dreamers in their lives.
AmFam's Signs of Support campaign leveraged two of the brand's high profile brand ambassadors, sports stars Kevin Durant and JJ Watt, in an integrated campaign that generated awareness, consideration and brand engagement. Both Kevin and JJ have shared that the support they get from fans helps fuel them as they pursue their dreams. The brand wanted to find "real" people who are actively pursuing their dreams – starting a new business, going back to school, or saving to put their children through college – and in a role reversal, have Kevin and JJ surprise them by showing up with signs of encouragement. AmFam's campaign showed that all dreams are worthy of support.
A two-phase strategy was created to generate excitement and sustain momentum throughout the campaign. Each phase contained its own set of objectives and overall media strategy. TV, print, digital and social media channels worked together to carry this message home to consumers and provided opportunities for consumers to engage with the brand, while sending out their message
Phase 1: Spread the Encouraging Word – TV, online video & digital creative launched in high profile sports and general programming to show how AmFam supports everyday dreamers. Print ads also highlighted the brand ambassadors and expressed the importance of encouraging dreams. We also promoted the campaign through eye-catching social placements, encouraging consumers to spread the message. Sports fans were targeted through high-engagement social channels Facebook and Twitter. Attention-grabbing posts were created by incorporating images and strong, call-to-action overlays on the video. Social media influencers on Facebook, and Twitter were used to generate additional interest and to reach a much broader audience outside of AmFam's social media fans and followers. We targeted the fan bases of our ambassadors, as well as other sports enthusiasts and dreamers, to drive further engagement with our campaign content. The campaign needed to increase brand awareness and drive consumers to learn more about AFI's Signs of Support campaign on dreamfearlessly.com.
Phase 2: Show Your Support – Traditional and digital channels encouraged user participation, urging consumers to cheer on the everyday dreamer in their lives by creating their own signs of support. Consumers were asked to create a sign using AmFam's "Dream Fearlessly" brand hub, which personalized a message held by KD or JJ, or both. Additionally, Twitter influencers were used to encourage people to create their own signs of support. These messages of encouragement were then tweeted out by AmFam to the dreamer. Finished signs were also showcased on AmFam's "Dream Fearlessly" hub as an affirmation of each dreamer's efforts in pursuing his/her dreams.
The integrated Signs of Support campaign increased brand awareness, drove brand engagement and created a movement of support for everyday dreamers.
Phase 1: Spread the Encouraging Word
Phase 2: Show Your Support
