AAA

AAA needed a partner to create a new 3-year campaign for their auto insurance business. Their direct response TV spots were 8 years old and competitors had gained significant market share in that time. Digital and print were also feeling tired.

The two major markets (CA and TX) had very different levels of awareness. Other markets like the Northeast and HI varied. And AAA was looking to expand into digital along with shoring up social with fresh new assets.

Our creative strategy was to evolve the traditional DR TV approach into story driven creative that could be executed across and optimized across any channel for the foreseeable future.

Price is the #1 reason people switch insurance and our target was more mature.

Our concept Saving You went one step further from the savings message, with real members talking about what they did with their savings, making our stories interesting, relatable, and trust-worthy. We wanted our audience to connect with more human stories. And we needed these stories to be created in a modular way for different markets and for testing. We crafted them so we could dial the message from brand, to brand response, to traditional DR.

AAA had amassed a list of happy members. We culled through 600 of them to find the most compelling and relatable stories. We also wanted members who could speak to other benefits beyond insurance so that AAA could build library assets for promotion across business lines (Membership/Roadside Assistance, discounts, travel, etc.).

We cast a diverse group of relatable and aspirational members, with varied interests—from a family that loves camping, to a hang gliding couple, to a fly fisherman and an amateur wrestling announcer.

With a budget in hand, we recommended doing 16 member stories (8 in CA and 8 in TX), captured in a modular way so that we could easily change in post and mix/match stories efficiently during the campaign.

What started as DR TV spots evolved strategically to become a complete content package for every channel and almost every line of business. TV, digital, in-store, social, and print.

We crafted AAA’s first campaign style guide. A 70-page comprehensive guide for internal use and for use by partner agencies around the country.

Then we hit the road. 37 consecutive shoot days across CA and TX. Member testimonials, lifestyle b-roll, AAA agents, branches, still photography. 32TB of video content and over 16,000 still images.

The first spots were due within weeks of our final shoot day. Fortunately, our editorial team was on it from day one, organizing the footage and the sound bites by pre-determined silos for easy access during the entire campaign.

We setup a digital asset management library (Wiredrive) for AAA so they could easily access, search and share all of the campaign assets.

The first two spots (camping and softball member stories)--after running for 90 days–showed a 40% decrease in CPL. The campaign is ongoing.

As a steward for road safety, AAA was looking to make an impact on distracted driving in 2018. The stats of injuries and deaths were climbing, and for the most part, nobody was listening. While we knew we wouldn’t reach everybody, we knew if we did it right, we’d be able to make an impact. Even with a small media budget.

We started with research and looking at the behaviors that drive distracted driving. We looked into how it parallels drunk driving and how that campaign has affected real change. After much ideation and concepting, it made good sense to leverage 50 years of drunk driving messaging to help fight this very new problem. So, Don’t Drive Intoxicated. Don’t Drive Intexticated. was born. If we could make texting and driving as taboo as drinking and driving, we’d not only gain valuable PR for our client, we’d save lives.

The omni-channel campaign consisted of TV commercials, radio, print, in-store, and new messaging on every AAA car and truck in the fleet.

In all, the initial campaign generated more than 102 million impressions. The TV spot had nearly 25,000 airings on top spot TV stations and highly rated cable properties. Further, it was reported that the campaign had a positive lift in distracted driving awareness from 8% to 25% in California, and from 2% to 14% in other markets.

In 2020, we filmed new TV creative for this campaign. It’s currently in post production.

With massive assets now under our belt from the AAA Insurance production, it was time to tackle AAA’s long form infomercial. Membership, insurance, travel and more. We played within the guide rails of what has worked for AAA for years. Our job was to update the overall look and feel and infuse some new messaging. Key was finding a new host who was younger and could connect to our audience in the most authentic way possible. And members who could speak to the benefits of AAA membership. We filmed all around S. California with the primary backdrop being Disney’s 890-acre Golden Oak Ranch in Santa Clarita. The neighborhood sets allowed us a variety of looks and allowed us to move quickly with complete control over the streets.

We created modular assets in post so that teams could localize, modify, and version easily.