Phase 3: Campaign Execution
The insurance nerds you know and trust.
The ask.
With the foundational brand work and visual identity complete, biBerk was ready to introduce its new brand to the market through a multi-channel advertising campaign. The campaign’s goal was to create awareness and affinity for biBerk’s new positioning among small business owners.
The truth.
Small business owners typically buy from agents because having a human, one-to-one connection fosters trust. And with nearly every major insurance brand featuring a spokesperson, we knew that creating brand personalities that were both knowledgeable and approachable would be key to success. This insight inspired the creation of Berk and Berklyn as spokespeople–unique, ownable characters who could personify biBerk’s nerdy personality in a relatable way.
Character sketches of Berk and Berklyn, biBerk’s spokespeople.
The challenges:
- Campaign testing constraints. The desire for quantitative proof of concept led to rigorous testing requirements, including geographic and platform-specific tests.
- Production logistics. Coordinating a large-scale shoot with multiple stakeholders, locations, and production requirements presented logistical complexities.
- Timeline adjustments. Due to web update delays, the campaign launch was postponed to align with the improved user experience.
The solution.
First, we created a multi-step testing approach to help address organizational concerns around viability. This began with audience testing with our media team to ensure that we had selected the most compelling individuals to include in our future tests. We then planned a mini “Match Market” YouTube campaign to help measure revenue lift, on a small scale, between statistically similar DMAs.
As one of the top 3% of Google Partner agencies, we have access to world-class Google data scientists who helped develop a test to show the incremental lift and ROAS that amazing creative, combined with a smart video strategy, could produce for customers. The final step of our testing plan was to launch a large scale GeoX campaign, which included 69 test and 68 control DMAs. By holding back creative placements in the test DMAs, we were able to measure the incremental brand and revenue lift of expanded spend and new brand spots.
To execute the GeoX test, data analysts identified two sets of 68 similarly performing DMAs based on the previous nine months of direct-response advertising performance. Then, the new brand ads were trafficked in across YouTube placements over a 10-week period.
Meanwhile, our creative team brought a producer and full production team on board to collaborate with through casting, script creation and shoot coordination across Toronto and LA. We shot four :30 commercials, plus additional footage for shorter placements, that highlighted two of biBerk’s top customer industries: construction and professional services.
The spots.
Berk shows off his business insurance book smarts with a bottom-of-funnel message about saving money.
Berklyn connects with business owners of all kinds in a top-of-funnel message that incorporates biBerk’s most-insured industries.
Berk introduces a contractor small business owner to the ease of working with biBerk experts. They do the homework for you, after all.
Berklyn breaks down how the business insurance experts at biBerk use their knowledge to find the right type of coverage for every business.
Once the spots were created, we did a final “creative pressure test” to ensure that the updated videos outperformed not only industry benchmarks but also our own in terms of brand lift and engagement. They passed with flying colors.
The impact:
