Massively outspent in media dollars by competitors, the AAA Insurance brand message couldn’t be heard. If we couldn’t win in a shouting match, we had to win in a sharing match. We harnessed Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Beyond being a beloved 80s song encapsulating InsurAAAnce’s (Insurance with AAA) values: dedication, reliability, trust… Rickrolling is the world's most shareable meme.

Capitalizing on the surge in QR code use and utilizing strategic media placements, we created a surprise and delight Rickrolling activation. These moments of engagement served as the spark. True to the meme, people couldn’t help but share.

Home and auto insurance advertising is dominated by massive brands that rely on a relentless drumbeat of billion-dollar TV buys, spending upwards of $600 million a month. Driving awareness against this massive competition is a Herculean task, when we’re outspent 50:1 in media dollars. So, to break through competitive clutter, we created something so shareable that it could spread far and wide without an outsized media buy.

We set out to:

- reach and activate Millennials, Gen X and young Boomers in key US markets with maximum media efficiency,

- boost Q3 metrics +20% in key markets with increased leads,

- increase brand awareness and brand discovery by generating a 20%+ increase in online searches,

- and create a memorable brand engagement driving substantial earned media and positive social response to achieve first-ever mass cultural recognition

In collaboration with Rick Astley himself, and for the first time ever, we reshot the artist’s iconic music video frame by frame with an InsurAAAnce twist. We worked with Rick to make sure it maintained the spirit and fun of the original. It resulted in the modern remake the internet never knew it needed: The Ultimate Rickroll.

To get the word out? We Rickrolled our audience.

Strategically placed well-coiffed unbranded QR codes and cryptic bit.ly links surprised and delighted unsuspecting viewers. From wallscapes, mobile truck billboards and aerial sky-typing, we used local media to launch in unexpected ways. Something people couldn’t help but share– our film quickly evolved into a global internet phenomenon.

AAA Insurance wins in trust and reputation but has extremely low brand awareness. We needed something unexpected — and irresistibly shareable — to break through and compete. Rickrolling fit the bill, but we needed a modern mechanism to deliver the experience to our audience.

QR technology was that mechanism. We knew that the pervasive use of QR codes driven by the pandemic would only make the campaign more effective. Moreover, the QR usage had multi-generation adoption, facilitating engagement with millennials, Gen X and younger boomers alike, three critical segments to the brand’s business strategy.

We took a sophisticated approach to QR deployment, one that gave us the ability to measure and optimize each individual QR code- from a TV screen in Philly to a billboard in D.C. to a Bengals stadium in Cincinnati. That approach ultimately drove more than 200,000 scans, generating more than 100 million video views.

Across print, OOH, and Spot TV our media needed to work hard. A hyperlocal launch strategy was critical and placements were carefully selected to be eye-catching and easily scannable.

The mass adoption of QR codes during the pandemic allowed the unique ability to seamlessly Rickroll our audience. But, with mass adoption comes ubiquity. So, we created mystery and intrigue with our QR code by making it unbranded and well-coiffed. Cryptic and irresistible, people couldn’t help but scan.

A flighting strategy was integral to positive user experience and preventing QR code novelty wear out. Reach/frequency analysis suggested the optimal launch phase was 3 weeks.

In collaboration with Rick, we took great care in replicating the video, even down to its 4:3 aspect ratio. Wardrobe was a modern match to his 1987 look, major choreography moments were replicated by dancers turned agents and each video location was matched to the original.

Within 24 hours, a new era of Rickrolling had begun. 206,000 QR scans from local media placements exploded into +100 million organic views as people shared and reposted.

Celebrities and internet personalities caught on, and our campaign landed the front page of hundreds of major publications. In total, it generated over 700 million U.S. Earned Media impressions and over 2.2 billion Global Earned Media impressions, transforming a $540,000 media buy into $36 million of earned media in the first week alone — a 65X return.

The campaign had equally impressive impact on core business metrics. Demand for AAA Insurance spiked, online searches increasing 93% and quotes increasing an astonishing 378% YoY. The surge in demand ultimately led to a 167% lift in new policies, generating an 84% increase in insurance premiums. The campaign elevated AAA Insurance from a regional brand to a global phenomenon.

Driving awareness in one of the most competitive industries on the planet while being outspent 50:1 by category leaders, required us to break the mold. The behemoth brands rely on mass awareness strategies like high tune-in, national broadcast buys and mascot development requiring years of investment to break through.

We needed an activation that could competitively stake an earned media and social attention claim for AAA Insurance in what had previously been cultural white space. The Ultimate Rickroll delivered a brand experience unlike anything seen in the Insurance category to-date, and captivated audiences in a way that drove organic motivation to share with their friends and networks.

Achieving cultural and social virality at this scale had never been done before by a regional or national insurance provider. The overwhelming consumer response was a clear indication that InsurAAAnce wasn’t just a part of culture, but a creator of it.

Finally, an insurance ad that people were actively searching for. Due to the industry’s massive buys, people are forced to watch a continuous cycle of insurance ads online and on TV. The Ultimate Rickroll instead had a small media footprint but was sought out and shared by millions organically, resulting in an overwhelmingly positive sentiment (94% positive sentiment on YouTube).

Since the mid 2000s, Rickrolling has been a huge part of internet culture. The phenomenon involves sending someone a seemingly innocuous hyperlink that actually misdirects to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” YouTube video. It’s one of the most highly shareable memes on the internet, having amassed more than 1 billion views. The song and Rick himself are beloved online. This year was also the 35th anniversary of the song and Rick’s first US tour since 1987 (including our key markets), putting the song back into the cultural zeitgeist.