Situation

The koala is an Australian icon, but due to their ubiquity in national imagery, not many Australians realise that every day, over 1000 football fields of koala native bushland habitat are destroyed.

It is estimated the lovable species could be extinct as early as 2050.

Brief

In keeping with NRMA’s brand purpose of ‘Help’, this campaign was designed to show NRMA’s belief that every home is worth protecting. What Australians were not expecting to hear is an insurer declaring that the homes of our wildlife are equally in need of protection.

NRMA needed to move Australians to care more about this vulnerable species, while also trusting in the brand to protect homes of all kinds.

Objectives

Partnering with Conservation Volunteers to plant a tree for every new home insurance policy, NRMA allowed the simple act of taking out insurance to contribute to a wider cause- Home Insurance for Koalas.

“Home Insurance for Koalas” was designed to put the need to protect homes of some of the most vulnerable Australians - the endangered koala. An emotional film about a boy who spots and rescues a koala stranded up a telegraph pole and takes him to the safety of bushland, only to find the land bulldozed, brought the koala’s plight to national attention. Creating empathy and authenticity relied heavily on the performance of the films’ marsupial star, Arlo.

Arlo became a chatbot character, did a morning TV circuit with his human handler Jarrod, while also making his way into the hearts of Australians. The success of “Home Insurance for Koalas” really did fall on the shoulders of one talent partnership. Arlo, the right koala for the job, further ‘donated’ his talent fee to wildlife conservation, making him the highest paid actor for a TV role.

With loss of habit for Koala’s reported by 2050 - instead of just making ads - the moment for NRMA to act with a commitment was upon us. We needed to make the problem real, visible and tangible to a population that was unaware just how close our national icon was to extinction.

As an insurer, it was vital for us not to take a charity approach, fearing it would appear disingenuous and preachy. We instead implemented an educational and rallying methodology - directing consumers to our Koala website hub hosted by Arlo, where interactive mapping technology showed predicted loss of Koala habitat and vegetation, providing consumers with a visually arresting reason to plant a tree now.

First, we partnered with Conservation Volunteers Australia and created a major three-year initiative ‘Home Insurance for koalas’; committing to plant a tree for every new home insurance policy.

We launched the initiative with an emotional film starring a little boy and Arlo the koala, the star of the campaign. Arlo achieved stardom becoming Australia’s highest-paid commercial animal ‘actor’, appearing on breakfast TV and the front page of national press.

Dedicated online platforms including the website and chatbot enriched the experience and audience participation by educating Australians on the issue and directing them how to help.

Both outdoor and radio featuring the voice of Australia’s most famous TV koala ‘Blinky Bill’ helped spread the message around NSW and QLD.

National rugby team the Brisbane Broncos were one of many organisations that attended tree planting days, and finally, a partnership with The Lion’s Share fund allowed the media plan itself to contribute.

Business

25.1% growth in Home insurance quotes (45.6% growth in Queensland, a challenging market for NRMA)

16.1% YoY growth in actual policy sales for Home insurance – surpassing benchmark by 322%

Brand

60" and 15" films had an instant positive brand impact of 57%, well above the industry average of 38%

‘brand I trust’ grew by +4.8% points and ‘brand I like’ grew by +3.6% points

Response rate

+4 million site visits to the NRMA home page during the campaign period

Behaviour change

60,000 trees planted and a total of 2,000 volunteer hours spent

24,528 mins of engaged conversation spent by consumers with the koala chatbot

Reached an audience of more than 22 million with an earned media coverage worth $1.15 million

ROI

The campaign drove a long-term profit of $70,003,100 at an ROI of 9.5:1

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