Willis Towers Watson Affinity

Bringing a seamless end-to-end Affinity insurance offering to the fore

An unapologetic new stance and bold articulation provide heightened awareness of WTW Affinity - a leading global end-to-end Affinity insurance solutions provider.

The challenge

WTW is a renowned multi-national company that offers expert consultancy and support in professional fields including insurance. Strongly associated with the brokerage part of this process, the brand’s innovative end-to-end Affinity capabilities are far less renowned. Our task was to change this, through a LinkedIn campaign that built awareness of WTW Affinity as a leading InsurTech provider.

Affinity programmes are essentially partnerships with organisations looking to sell insurance alongside their main activities – like a mobile phone contract with accompanying cover. When run well, these can hugely boost bottom lines with a minimum of time or effort on the seller’s part. And because the more a customer buys from a brand the more loyal they become, profit generates more profit. What’s not to like?

 

With the vast amounts of experience WTW Affinity could call upon, they could always be trusted to run their clients’ insurance programmes phenomenally well – ensuring the seamlessness, efficiency and profitability customers were seeking could be delivered.

We had the compelling story we needed. The question was, how best to tell it?

The solution

With the subject being a complex one, we needed a campaign that was simplicity itself. And with awareness of the brand’s Affinity offering lower than desired, a disruptive, arresting and memorable idea was needed.

We created simplicity right from the offset, by breaking up a broad, multi-faceted story into a series of focused, specific executions – detailing a single selling point at a time. Not only would this make the information more digestible; it would provide scalability and longevity. 

Glueing all of these together was a single-minded, core creative thought, fuelled by a mix of sector insight, audience insight and a universal human truth. Rational and emotional inspiration, if you will.

Throughout the concept’s development, we knew that this particular landscape was super competitive and constantly evolving. We knew that our audience was already enjoying a degree of success through their work. But we also knew that, as human beings, they would be prone to inertia; of falling into the trap of thinking good was good enough and ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. 

This all told us that despite their current endeavours, the threat of falling behind was ever-present and very real. And so, our Never Settle concept was born – creatively dramatised with the sector-defying assertion that ‘acceptable is unacceptable’ – and that these professionals needed to think bigger to keep thriving.

The ensuing series of bold executions delivered WTW Affinity the presence and standout it needed. The brand’s unapologetic view had the effect of positioning it as a thought leader – with its years of experience providing the ‘permission’ required to be so. While pointedness of messaging provided absolute clarity of thought, in a sector riddled with complexity.

The ‘drip-feeding’ of specific messages also played a huge role in campaign clarity. The work launched with an introduction to the assertion of acceptable is unacceptable, before rolling out to focus on different selling points – beginning with enhanced profitability and heightened loyalty, before turning its attention to InsurTech’s innovations, the seamlessness of its end-to-end solutions and, finally, its scale and reach through multi-country distribution. This allowed the brand to demonstrate its total understanding, in specific detail, multiple times of exactly how it could benefit the audience. Focus breeds clarity. Clarity breeds confidence and credibility. 

For all the good things the campaign’s words did, however, it was equally vital to always look the part. And in this aspect, it passed with flying colours. 

The already-established WTW ‘master code’ graphic was placed at the heart of every execution to give the work an immediate sense of familiarity and ownability. While the unobtrusive, but ceaseless zoom of the camera conveyed restlessness, urgency and progressiveness. 

A dynamic suite of striking aerial shots helped to take our storytelling beyond conventional corporate parameters – creating a consistently arresting, standout identity. And their epic nature not only helped to elevate the brand to a loftier positioning – it also allowed the campaign to make sense of the brand’s existing strapline – ‘a world of opportunity’.

Over a sustained period of time, and in many different ways, the campaign positioned WTW Affinity’s InsurTech solutions as the means of never having to settle again – providing it with the loudest voice it’s ever had in a crowded market, as well as a wider, more engaged audience.

We needed a multi-market campaign to build brand awareness of WTW Affinity as a leading end-to-end Affinity insurance solutions provider, helping us to shake off the image of an old-school player that specialises in broking. mark-making* did a fantastic job of hitting the brief. The Never Settle concept, and simple but bold articulation of ‘acceptable is unacceptable’, packed the punch I was looking for. The campaign is doing really well, in terms of both CPC and CTR, suggesting the creative is right on the money, and it was great fun to work on too.

Patricia Antúnez Head of Marketing - Affinity