We needed to adopt this attitude– to take a risk with an idea that would enable Allianz to stand out from the rest of the category.

Econometric forecasts showed that a traditional TV airtime approach with the budget available would not achieve the 2016 awareness targets. Critically, we also needed consumers, brokers and employees to understand what makes Allianz different.

Managing risk is central to the insurance business. But Allianz wanted to break free from this stereotype with a brand positioning around confidence and courage – encouraging their older, upmarket customers to adopt a ‘can do’ attitude’ - to dare to do anything they wanted to.

At the heart of the deal was a groundbreaking content series. ‘Dare to Believe’ tells the story of seven Paralympians and the life-changing moments that led to them becoming world-class athletes. Each episode was an intimate portrait of a British Paralympian heading to Rio, focusing on their training regimes and the moments that changed their lives.

These inspirational films gave viewers an insight into the lives of these top para-athletes, and ran on Channel 4 TV and online.

Allianz also featured in the first ever ad break where all of the adverts were interpreted with sign language, which took place during the Paralympics.

We extended the partnership with print, social, recruitment and trade campaigns, and took our athlete ambassadors to 18 offices across the country, giving employees the chance to meet and engage with world-class athletes. One of our employees even got to be a Paralympic torch bearer in Rio.

Sir Phillip Craven (International Paralympic Committee president) described our content as “…the best piece of Paralympics content I have ever seen”.

The campaign reached over 50m people in the UK, more than 90% of the GB population. The ‘Dare to believe’ short films were viewed 30.5m times across multiple platforms.

Prompted awareness over-achieved our ambitious 60% target, peaking at an all-time high of 61%.

Viewers of the Paralympics were 83% more likely to believe ‘Allianz is a brand for people like me’ and 150% more likely to believe Allianz ‘takes its responsibility towards society seriously’.

The campaign also had a huge positive impact internally: 90% of Allianz employees surveyed said the Paralympics sponsorship made them proud to work for Allianz.

As well as the business results, 18 medals were won by the seven ParalympicsGB athletes that Allianz supported financially and featured in our ‘Dare to Believe’ series.