Ad of the Week: Legal & General Life Insurance

Notoriously, insurance is a very difficult sell. People hate paying for something that they hope to never use. So you can imagine how hard it is to advertise - let alone sell - life insurance in a way that is appealing to consumers.

No one wants to reminded about the mortality, especially not their premature demise. It all seems a bit morbid (pardon the pun).

So, how do advertisers get people to consider the importance of life insurance? By reiterating that you don't buy it for yourself. Pretty, obvious I know. But the challenge lies in how you execute that.

For example, you don't want to be too direct like "If you die unexpectedly you need to leave something behind." These type of messages are too blunt and very negative. In general, people are not receptive to these messages because they just make them concentrate on their death and nothing else. So, with offerings in this product category, a direct "call to action" is not always the best way to go about it. Nor is making light of the fact that you might die prematurely as people will view as such and overlook its importance. 

The message needs to get you to think about your death positively. You are probably thinking, "Is that even possible?" Well, yes and no. It is about getting you to think about why you taking it out (your family)and your love for them first. Then demonstrating that taking life insurance out is sign of your affection and love for them. 

That's what Legal and General have done with their first execution of their new life insurance campaign. The ads show positive, happy images of a an expectant couple, a boy playing superheroes with his dad, or parents enjoying quality with their new born. As these ads are aimed at adults with families, the target audience can admittedly relate to images and naturally start to think about the happy times they have shared with their own families.

Then, instead of the message on top being blunt, it gets the audience to think about their potential death themselves in a gentle, yet impactful way. Taglines like "Because things just got a bit more serious" or "Because now it about more than just you." in isolation would mean very little, but in this content the consumer can connect the dots themselves. This allows the consumer to absorb this hard hitting, quite sad message in a way that they are most comfortable with.

In short, Legal and General have successfully produced happily morbid adverts. Good job!