NRMA Insurance launched a new TVC ‘Every Home Is Worth Protecting’ featuring a boy who helps return a koala to bushland after its home was destroyed. We were tasked with leveraging the TV spot.

So, we positioned Arlo the koala as Australia’s highest paid debut actor. And he became a national celebrity, overnight.

This PR approach propelled Arlo (and NRMA Insurance) to front page news in Australia (on two seperate mastheads), accumulated 365 direct brand mentions across TV, radio, press, online and social media and generated a global earned reach of 21.4mil.

Not bad, for a debut actor.

In a category notoriously devoid of empathy, NRMA Insurance wants to embody Australia’s spirit of help. Although the message of Help was resonating, the brand faced challenges with the importance of home insurance. The “Every Home is Worth Protecting” campaign aimed to address this and its face was one of Australia’s most vulnerable citizens - koalas. The brief was to generate earned media coverage for an existing TVC featuring a koala and the role that NRMA Insurance was playing in protecting koala homes.

The idea was to position Arlo as the highest paid debut actor in Australia, verified with industry authorities TalentPay and 2Divas. We then donated Arlos ‘talent fee’ to Conservation Volunteers Australia, an organisation committed to restoring the homes of koalas around Australia.

We engaged Jarred Schenk, CEO of Wildlife HQ and Arlo’s handler, to act as a media spokesperson, taking Arlo on a three-day media interview schedule,visiting a range of publishing houses.

To support this, a partnership with Conservation Volunteers Australia (which is managed by Havas) was created as well as an Australian first partnership with The Lion’s Share; and we recommended NRMA Insurance link the campaign back to its business and it did, planting a tree for every home policy purchased.

Arlo donated his fee to Conservation Volunteers Australia to protect more koala homes like his, which united all elements of the campaign together.

Thorough research was conducted at the outset of the project to better understand the plight of koalas; Australian attitudes towards the environment and climate change; and the broader discourse that koala conservation is linked to, particularly in light of the results of the recent national election and its focus on climate change and our environment.

Instead of focusing the campaign on the environment or climate change, the PR campaign would aim to make the koala that starred in the TV ad a loveable rockstar. We wanted to hero Arlo the koala and ensure people fell in love with him to land the message.

The idea was that Arlo would become famous as the highest paid debut actor in Australian history. This was verified with industry authorities TalentPay and 2Divas.

We reviewed the IAG Climate Action Plan and recommended a range of partnerships and initiatives that would safeguard the reputation of the brand and make the campaign genuinely impactful. A partnership with Conservation Volunteers Australia (which is managed by Havas) was created as well as a partnership with The Lion’s Share; and we recommended NRMA Insurance link the campaign back to its business and it did, planting a tree for every home policy purchased.

Arlo donated his fee to Conservation Volunteers Australia to protect more koala homes like his, which united all elements of the campaign together.

The campaign generated 21.4m earned global reach, smashing an ambitious target of 10m.

? Front-page Press coverage, twice (Daily Telegraph and The Courier Mail)

? 68 pieces of news coverage

? 365 direct brand mentions across TV, radio, press, online and social media

? The NRMA Insurance Port Macquarie Koala Hospital post is in the top 10 branded content posts in Australia on Instagram

People knew the campaign was for NRMA Insurance with:

? 100% of the coverage was positive-neutral in sentiment

? 97% mentioned NRMA Insurance

Instagram

? Reach: 866,200 and over 1,100 comments

Twitter

? Engagement rate: 4.4% (triple industry standards) and 1,200 retweets

Facebook

? Reach: 2.7m, 6K shares and 22.9m impressions

At a brand level, consumers have engaged positively with the emotional messaging platform, uplifting overall brand metrics on ‘help’ and ‘understanding’.