We Cover Courage
Allianz
Issue 51 | June 2019
Agency
In the Company of Huskies
Creative Team
Creative Director Damian Hanley Art Directors Damian Hanley, Nick Kelly Copywriter Greg McLoughlin
Production Team
Agency Producer Brian Daly Senior Designer Nicole McMahon Production Company Pull The Trigger Director Richie Smith
Other Credits
Business Director Sarah Deeny Account Manager Kritika Verma Senior Account Executive Cillian McSweeney Digital Strategy David Hayes Social Media Manager Thomas Ryan Clients Head of Market Management Robert McEvoy Head of Marketing Operations Damien O’Neill Marketing Communications Executives Joseph Campbell, Niamh Ryan
Date
March 2019
Background
Allianz wanted to talk about its brand purpose in a new way and reconnect customers to the idealistic roots of insurance, reminding them that Allianz was there to support them when they faced the big and the small choices that impacted on their lives.
As the largest insurer of schools across Ireland, Allianz Ireland had a long- standing connection with education.
Idea
The campaign message was ‘We cover courage’ and each execution was intended to depict true acts of courage by Irish people starting with the momentous moment in 1966 when the Minister for Education, Donogh O’Malley announced that all secondary-school education in Ireland would be free.
At that time about a third of all children were dropping out of school after primary. Today, Ireland has one of the highest rates of second-level completion in the EU.
O’Malley made his announcement without the knowledge or permission of the Ministry of Finance and without telling his Cabinet colleagues.
This one act of monumental courage represents a pivotal point in Irish history and had major consequences for social mobility and cultural change.
Because no film footage of the event survived, Allianz set out to recreate the full speech 53 years after it was first delivered, using the former Minister’s son, the actor Daragh O’Malley (‘Silent Witness’, ‘Withnail and I’, ‘Sharpe’ etc) to deliver it.
Results
Daragh O’Malley said delivering his father’s speech had been one of the proudest moments of his career, quite something for such a talented theatre and film actor.
Fifty years after this act of courage, once again it created a debate about the bravery of politicians and was referenced in the national press and radio.
Our Thoughts
The positioning idea of ‘We cover courage’ is very different to the usual insurance company statements about risk.
It’s certainly a much more emotive sort of message and in recreating the speech over half a century later with the politician’s actual son, well, it’s goosebump stuff.
The clients will have needed some courage as well. I see the campaign has already come in for a whacking in the Irish press. But it is a truism that advertising no-one objects to will almost always be advertising no-one notices. Polarising work is work that gets seen. I’m not saying marketers should set out to annoy people but I am suggesting that if you want to get people strongly agreeing with you then you have to expect, even welcome, others strongly disagreeing.