Libano-Suisse Insurance: Making molehills out of mountains

Well, there's nothing wrong with a bit of fun in the face of drama. Lebanese are kind of experts at this mind you. So introducing the new trilogy of films from Pimo for Lebano-Suisse Insurance. "Sarlak Chi?" "Wa law!" and "Chou Sar?" - the idea is the same transposed in three different situations: accident, flood, and fall. Note that Salim who has fallen literally into a ditch while hiking is worried about the menu at home for lunch, the mother-in-law is asking "what happened?" referring to the television series as opposed to the house filled with water, and the man who had his car smashed goes "no issue!" - considering he is well-covered. Well, who says you can't be funny with insurance? The films suggest otherwise indeed.

Comin.... relax don't do it

Photo credit - Georges Serhan

Not sure where to start. Or maybe I am jumping the gun (har har)... But is that a gun in my pocket or is that ad happy to see me? Well, here we are. Comin, the insurance company, has a new ad.... It says "we stand by you" but it also says "you are having an erection". Is it attention grabbing? Yes. Is it the positioning wanted by an insurance company? Well, apparently yes from where they stand (no pun). The ad says "you are having an erection" and underneath "this is our number" just to be clear - and the visual is a man with a magnifier (apparently the size of the boner is not big enough). Well, this is sad people. Suddenly am remembering Frankie Goes To Hollywood and their "Relax don't do it"... Or it could be they are just comin(g) you know....

Securite Assurance gets it

"More than covered. Valued" - whomever came up with this deserves respect. They understand what people want from insurance. They know that people seek to be treated as individuals, not just numbers or cases and really want this one-on-one connection where the other person is actually listening to them. Very good. Very very good.

Allianz, selling insurance the hard way.

 "Cover them with love and we'll cover the rest", "Drive the way forward and we'll drive away the barriers"... Such as two examples of the new Allianz campaign with the tag #BehindYouForWhatsAhead (OK barely readable on the billboard scale). Now, insurance has become an incredibly tricky business in Lebanon because - to be able to survive - insurance companies are now requesting to be paid in "Fresh Dollars" (meaning the stacked Dollars in the bank no longer make sense because they are stale and unusable - long story, as all banks now technically bankrupt). And very few people have access to Dollars which makes only a selected few able to actually enjoy insurance. A conundrum for sure. Well, somewhere the campaign is a little "tiree par les cheveux" which in French means "forced". Maybe the copy is a bit too long or not cute enough.... 

Comin - new insurance app

Well, apparently there is a  new insurance app called Comin. It is one of the very very few campaigns on the road. But still, it is quite visible viewing the lack of challenge from other brands still invisible on the billboards. So Comin seems to have a major differential point to the rest: It covers teleconsultations. Well, "creative" wise they went lowest common denominator with a hand in a white gown extending a stethoscope from the cellphone - as I said, lowest common denominator. But hey, I guess they tried to appeal to everyone and anyone at the same time, so I guess they just tried to deliver the message via an un-sophistical route. No points for guessing which they used the blue though - it has been proven to insure trustworthiness, calm and discipline. 

Securite Assurance, or the never-ending Beirut explosion saga

Securite Assurance is "covering damages from the Beirut blast - because we're here for real" and then in much small font "terms of initiative apply" - because of course, there is always a smaller font! Still, whereas the world has passed on to new crises, Beirut is still reeling from the effect of the August 4th blast. Also, the image above of the house whose ceiling was lavishly decorated but which has basically bore the brunt of the explosion only testifies to what there is on the ground. That this ad comes right bang on Christmas/New Year's week only joins other such ads (I already spoke about this prior here and here). With too many problems Lebanese are drowning in, even those affected by the blast might shrug at the sight of such an ad.

Allianz SNA goes back to the beginning of photoshop

Remember when Photoshop started? You don't? Well, let Allianz SNA remind you. Ah those mid-90 years with rudimentary typography, hit or miss layout (more miss than hit), sophomoric concepts (well, playing on phobic ideas in a country like Lebanon is a bit edgy!)... You know, the exact Allianz SNA ads have graced us with (and they also "animated" them - check this "beauty" here). On second thought, since the purpose of any ad is to attract attention, maybe it worked for the insurance company, yet for the wrong reasons! 

Disclaimer: SNA (prior to being Allianz) was a client of a company I used to work for, and I did ads for them in the past (thankfully, good ads). 

Arope - how can insurance companies still expect people to be gullible?

At least banks are silent. I mean they tried to ell that spin that they were "obliged" to do what they did due to the "big bad government" - no one bought it so at least they shut up. But insurance companies? Take Arope - still producing those slice of life ads like it was still the 90s in Lebanon. Oh and they also add this patriotic hashtag which irritates like hell. Please, stop it. No one wants to hear your patriotic chorus. People want their money from banks (Arope is owned by Blom Bank). Save your money Arope on idiotic productions.