Since 2007, the AXA Research Fund has dedicated over £150m to funding health, environment and economic research, across circa 600 projects. In development with the AXA Health Tech & You Awards, AXA has also been supporting pioneers of innovation in health technology; enabling their projects to expand and improve lives. Consequently, AXA wanted to display that they are a company who cares about the environment, public health and the future of tomorrow by showcasing the innovative and research-based projects they were funding. Through this, AXA wanted to improve both their brand perception and consideration before the end of the year, positioning themselves as the preferred go-to insurance company. However, considering the savvy nature of audiences around companies over-claiming their credentials, AXA recognised that they couldn’t just announce their position through standard advertising. They needed to deliver the message through compelling stories that comprised of engaging and understandable content, around scientific research, that would resonate with their audiences and elevate perceptions of the AXA brand and insurance category as a whole.
While insurance may be a necessity in our lives, it is a low interest category and clouded by public perception that legacy insurers are not doing enough to positively support their customers or society. AXA, however, has been continuously striving to make people’s lives better and safer as a key part of their ongoing brand proposition for over a decade and wanted to share their story in a compelling way through partners with scale, trust, editorial strength and integrity; Sky Media was their chosen storytelling television partner.
AXA and Sky Media decided that the best way to tell these stories and reach a wider audience would be to co-create a compelling documentary series. The stories would be built around a three core parts of AXA’s research and investment focusing on The Future of Driving, The Future of Genetic Research and The Future of Our Oceans. To host this series, we needed talent that was trustworthy, and likeable, who would ask the right questions and turn this scientific information into bite-sized, understandable information for all audiences. We found a perfect match in the much-loved Sue Perkins who agreed to support the brand in her first ever commercial work.
The 9-month AXA partnership campaign launched on the 1st October 2018 and ran until the 31st July 2019. Sue hosted 3 documentary films covering driverless cars, climate change and the future of ageing, that were broadcast across Sky’s TV portfolio (including Sky News and our YouTube channel) and housed on our EPG (with A Better Future VOD title housed under Catch Up and Sky Channel Series sections). To launch each documentary a long-form 120” ad-break roadblock took over more linear Sky channels simultaneously than ever before and were supported with additional AdSmart and VOD placement. These long-form TVCs, as well as the shorter-form 30” TVCs edited down from the documentary content, contained a red button trigger linking the user through to the On Demand documentary.
AXA-supported researchers and relevant Sky talent were interviewed within each film. To elevate the conversation even further, these individuals went on to be interviewed by Eamonn Holmes on his Drivetime show. Eamonn found the discussions so interesting, he invited AXA staff back on air to discuss the topics further. News UK amplified Sky’s content and created long-form features in The Sunday Times Magazine. All media partner brands featured AXA-supported scientists in their content which was amplified across their digital and social platforms, meaning everything sought to educate consumers on the vital research that AXA was doing to help make lives better.
Sky Bet, Sky Sports and Sky Media
