Things happen
Issue 15 | June 2010
Agency
OgilvyOne Frankfurt
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Michael Kutschinski; Creative Directors: Dr. Ulf Schmidt, Uwe Jakob; Art Director: Alexander Brandenburger; Junior Art Director: Julia Scherer; Copywriter: Ralf Schulte; Motion Graphics Designer: Ralf Zimmerman;
Other Credits
Client Service Director: Thorsten Rühlmann; Account Director: Pia Tannenberger; Senior Account Executive: Sascha Riedel
Date
2009-2010
Background
One of the advantages of buying car insurance from Zürich is their HelpPoint service. The requirement was for a banner ad that reminded potential customers that, in the event of an accident, Zürich will takes care of you, fast.
Idea
Most accidents happen when you least expect them to. And that’s what the banner demonstrates in a very tangible way. When online users try to open their Yahoo! mail account, the mailbox falls down and smashes the car in the banner below. Fortunately, the Zurich HelpPoint people react quickly. They recover the damaged car and arrange repairs in an instant.
Results
With a superior click rate of 1.7%, online users were driven to the Zurich HelpPoint homepage.
Our Thoughts
We like great big ideas at Directory (see Aim Proximity’s Yellow Chocolate campign on p.xx for one of those) but we also like clever little ideas. And this is one of those. Some creative luminaries have speculated that the banner is dead because click-through rates are generally so abysmal. But I am reminded of Howard Gossage who, nearly 50 years ago, wrote, “People will read what interests them and occasionally that might even be an advertisement.” The same holds true today. People will click on what interests them and occasionally that might even be a banner. If it has an idea to it, as this does.