2017 Bronze Best brand building campaign

PSONA

Client: Co-op Funeralcare

Leaving them something that they will appreciate

Campaign overview

People don’t want to think about what to do when they’re gone. So Co-op banished black ties and sad faces to discuss funeral planning - powered by British humour.

Strategy

In order to understand the challenges faced by their own customers, Co-op staff planned their own funerals – a 'method planning' approach, and one that yielded crucial insights.

Firstly, funeral planning and budgeting is tricky because it is just so personal. Any Co-op product had to be simple and reliable – hence the promise to guarantee full funeral cover.

Secondly, the tone and visual style of the marketplace felt ready to reward a brand prepared to disrupt the category, whilst representing that human side of the funeral planning process.

Co-op turned off the tears, and turned to humour. By building something light-hearted the aim was to stand out and persuade people of the idea of putting money aside for a funeral.

Creativity

To build a light-hearted campaign, in this category, the pitch of humour had to be right.

So Co-op brought their strategic thinking to life by crafting a fun, popular message that was born out of a common truth about funerals: that people leave behind them the strangest things.

Supported by the campaign and product message 'Leave your loved ones something they will appreciate – no surprise funeral bills', the work captured real people cast in real-life scenarios.

Press and DM executions featured a lady in her living room at home, surrounded by a porcelain cat collection. And a DRTV ad featured a train-enthusiast grandfather telling his underwhelmed family they could look after his huge collection of toy trains when was gone.

The film content was popular, with additional content created for social – and the executions gave Co-op stand-out performance in sales.

Results

The brand tracker showed Co-op’s DRTV creative had a 10% increase in persuasion versus the old style brand advertising.

The work also delivered a 6% increase on key message take out.

There was an overall increase of 69% year-on-year sales - proof that a light-hearted campaign can work in the funeral space, as Co-op's market share in pre-need funeral plans increased by 45%.

Team

Neame Ingram (Executive Creative Director) PSONA - Ellie Gauci (Executive Strategy Director) PSONA - Sion Jones (Senior Account Manager) PSONA - Harriet Elsom (Business Director) PSONA - Peter Turnbull (Head of Design) PSONA