NZ is one of the most under-insured countries in the world for life insurance.

To tackle this, we partnered up with NZ’s most popular ‘murder mystery’ TV show – The Brokenwood Mysteries.

In a partnership that pushed the boundaries of what was possible with a media integration, we brought the murdered characters back from the dead to stress the importance of having life insurance.

Together, we seamlessly integrated this message into the show for the entire season, creating a hybrid piece of content that was part show, part ad and an all-round category disrupter that captured the attention of NZ.

When it comes to life insurance, New Zealand is one of the most underinsured countries in the world. In fact, only 29% of New Zealanders have it.

We needed to turn a nation apathetic to life insurance into one that is actively engaged with it through Partners Life.

Our objectives:

- Grow New Zealanders appetite for life insurance

- Increase brand awareness and consideration of Partners Life

Research revealed a crucial barrier - Traditional advertising was the weakest motivational trigger for taking out life insurance [1]

New Zealand’s underinsurance would continue to worsen if a brand didn’t do something radically different about it.

Partners Life needed a new approach. They needed a way to talk to its audience in their everyday lives. A voice that their audience would actually listen to or was already engaged with. All while not appearing in a classic ad/commercial sense.

Our research uncovered that NZers reluctance to engage with the category, was driven by our reluctance to engage with death itself. With one exception - New Zealanders will happily engage with death when it’s a part of their entertainment consumption.

So, rather than use advertising to get people thinking about death, we wanted to activate where people are already engaging with it

Our creative idea was to use the hindsight of the dead to convince people to take out life insurance

We brought this to life through ‘The Last Performance’ - A life insurance campaign masquerading as part of a television series, where murdered characters wake from the dead to share their regrets about not getting life insurance.

The majority of New Zealanders are not adequately protected with life insurance. They fell into two groups - the un-insured and the under-insured.

Both group shared an apathy towards life insurance and only realised the need for it in hindsight, after disaster strikes.[1]

But in the case of death, it is too late to benefit from this hindsight.

Our strategy was to dramatise that hindsight is useless when you’re dead.

Which gave Partners Life a clear strategic role- Give NZers the hindsight they need to protect themselves from the risk of unexpected death, before it’s too late.

We partnered with NZ’s highest rating murder mystery show ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’ to tell the most compelling life insurance story NZ had ever seen.

Six episodes, meant six deaths, and six perfect candidates to share why they wish they had the hindsight to have life insurance.

Knowing NZers weren’t responding to life insurance advertising, we didn’t just want to use the dead characters as spokespeople in a traditional campaign.

So, at the end of every episode, before the credits rolled - in an unmissable media placement - we brought these murdered characters back from the dead for one ‘last performance’ using the same actors, same director, same crew, and same sets in the show to express their regrets at not having life insurance.

This reached 45% of New Zealanders, reminding them that life isn’t scripted so plan ahead and ‘Get Life Right’ – the brand’s platform.

The Last Performance turned a nation apathetic to life insurance into one actively engaged with it.

- 70% of New Zealanders now believe in the ‘importance of having life insurance’

- Further to that, we have also achieved a + 9% point uplift in New Zealanders actively considering getting life insurance after seeing The Last Performance.

- Brand awareness increased to 29% - attaining the highest awareness score for Partners Life in the last three years.

- Consideration for Partners Life increased to 26% - hitting our goal. This also led to website enquires increasing by 70% from pre-campaign levels.

It is best summarised by the CEO of Partners Life:

“The Last Performance is a subversive and convention challenging campaign, using humour and integration to disrupt standard advertising in the insurance industry and encourage viewers to engage with the content, while also positively supporting our advisor network” - Naomi Ballantyne

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